6 ms·

Frustratingly, in the opposite realm, I setup a really short address on my domain I wanted to use for business correspondence (b@mydomain.com), and it's astonis

Frustratingly, in the opposite realm, I setup a really short address on my domain I wanted to use for business correspondence (b@mydomain.com), and it's astonishing how many websites/forms reject it due to being "invalid" :<

deepspace 6y ago
Some years ago I realized that the last two letters of my first name is the same as a country TLD. So I registered the domain [letters 2 to (n-2)].[TLD], giving me an email address of [first letter]@letters 2 to (n-2)].[TLD] - i.e. something in the vein of r@ebec.ca. I thought that would be a great time saver, but to my chagrin it turns out that both computers and humans tend to have difficulty understanding such an unusual scheme.
- c22 6y ago
  I tried to use the @ as an A in an email address once and found it nearly impossible to relay to other humans.
airstrike 6y ago
I usually try a@b.com for forms I don't care about, but often have to resort to the more verbose nobody@nowhere.com when the validator complains about the former being too short...
- toast0 6y ago
  webmaster@$whateverdomainyouresurfing is the right thing to do. Stomping on other people's domains is rude.
  - 83457 6y ago
    or just me@example.com
  - zulln 6y ago
    This sometimes gives you special/admin access. Good if you are security testing something, bad if you accidentally hack a site.
  - ValentineC 6y ago
    example.com and example.org were specifically reserved for testing: https://www.iana.org/domains/reserved https://www.iana.org/domains/reserved
    - keitmo 6y ago
      I've seen sites that specifically deny @example.com email addresses.
      - duskwuff 6y ago
        Which is perfectly reasonable. They're looking for an email address that they can reasonably expect to deliver mail to, not just an address that is technically valid.
  - tetraca 6y ago
    I bet the guy who owns test.com gets a lot of interesting junk.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- tzs 6y ago
  The domain nowhere.com is real and has MX records pointing to email-hosting.net.au, which appears to have an Exim SMTP server running. Is nobody@nowhere.com meant for public use as a fake email address, or is it just something of yours, or what? When I need an email address for something that should not need my email address and for which I have no interest whatsoever in receiving any emails sent to, I use something @mouse-potato.com. Mouse-potato.com was registered in 1997 by, if I remember correctly, the owner of the Seattle ISP Northwest Nexus. Northwest Nexus is long gone, but he or someone has kept mouse-potato.com alive ever since. The MX record for mouse-potato.com points to mail.mouse-potato.com. The A record for that, www.mouse-potato.com, and mouse-potato.com all give 127.0.0.1. Give some spammer an @mouse-potato.com address, and hopefully they send the spam from the same machine their own SMTP server is on, and so end up just trying to send it to themselves. After he registered it, he stated publicly that it was specifically registered for Northwest Nexus customers, and anyone else who wanted to use it, for making fake email addresses.
  - airstrike 6y ago
    > The domain nowhere.com is real and has MX records pointing to email-hosting.net.au, which appears to have an Exim SMTP server running. Is nobody@nowhere.com meant for public use as a fake email address, or is it just something of yours, or what? It's just my own go-to (not-) fake e-mail. I probably tried it the first time when I was 12, and it worked, so whoever actually owns nobody@nowhere.com must be getting a lot of junk... At some point I realized the e-mail actually exists, but oh well... I figure with an e-mail like that they never expected it to be exactly private
    - c22 6y ago
      Who knows what they intended? It's probably not very nice to load them up with extra spam just because you're lazy (? I mean really, what are you gaining here?) I own a domain that is similar (in a "1337" way) to the domain of a CRM SaaS operation. At least once a week one of their customers signs up using my domain in a throwaway fake email address. I find it extremely frustrating. Because of their architecture and mine there is no easy way for me to filter these messages so I am often stuck with the spam in my inbox. I don't hold a grudge or anything, but I wish people would think before they fill in someone else's perfectly valid info into a form they don't want to give their own info to.
dreamcompiler 6y ago
I wish there were a reference set of validated C routines that corresponded to the [most important] RFCs and that everybody could be persuaded to use them. We pretty much have this for crypto, but for everything else on the internet it still seems like the wild west.
- layoutIfNeeded 6y ago
  I have such a routine for e-mail addresses: int is_valid_email(const char* email) { return strlen(email) > 0; } You're welcome. Coincidentally it also works for validating people's names and addresses too.
  - zzo38computer 6y ago
    That isn't very good. I would think better would be: int is_valid_email(const char*email) { return !!*email; } But, either way, it isn't good enough, because it is considered valid even if there is no at sign. With some applications, such as email on a local system, you don't need to worry about that, but on internet, you will need to check that there is a at sign in the email address. So, better would be to check if there is a at sign, and if so, then it is considered to be valid. Therefore, probably the best way is: int is_valid_email(const char*email) { return !!strchr(email,'@'); }
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      I don't see the difference between the one that was linked and the first one you posted, other than the other one invoking undefined behavior if not passed a null-terminated string.
      - zzo38computer 6y ago
        The difference is that it is potentially more efficient (depending what the optimizer does). (At least, it is how I do C programming.)
    - 6y ago
dathinab 6y ago
My favorite `""@example.com`. The semantically empty local part ;=) Oh and `""@[Ipv6:someipv6addres]` because who says that the domain system needs to be used. (Disclaimer: I don't remember if it was Ipv6 or ip-v6, I would have to look that up).
battery_cowboy 6y ago
I've been rejected because i use an .link domain, so it has 4 characters and they theft emails without 3 TLD characters! Luckily I also have an .com in that case.

deepspace 6y ago

Some years ago I realized that the last two letters of my first name is the same as a country TLD. So I registered the domain [letters 2 to (n-2)].[TLD], giving me an email address of [first letter]@letters 2 to (n-2)].[TLD] - i.e. something in the vein of r@ebec.ca. I thought that would be a great time saver, but to my chagrin it turns out that both computers and humans tend to have difficulty understanding such an unusual scheme.

c22 6y ago
I tried to use the @ as an A in an email address once and found it nearly impossible to relay to other humans.

airstrike 6y ago

I usually try a@b.com for forms I don't care about, but often have to resort to the more verbose nobody@nowhere.com when the validator complains about the former being too short...

toast0 6y ago
webmaster@$whateverdomainyouresurfing is the right thing to do. Stomping on other people's domains is rude.
- 83457 6y ago
  or just me@example.com
- zulln 6y ago
  This sometimes gives you special/admin access. Good if you are security testing something, bad if you accidentally hack a site.
- ValentineC 6y ago
  example.com and example.org were specifically reserved for testing: https://www.iana.org/domains/reserved https://www.iana.org/domains/reserved
  - keitmo 6y ago
    I've seen sites that specifically deny @example.com email addresses.
    - duskwuff 6y ago
      Which is perfectly reasonable. They're looking for an email address that they can reasonably expect to deliver mail to, not just an address that is technically valid.
- tetraca 6y ago
  I bet the guy who owns test.com gets a lot of interesting junk.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
tzs 6y ago
The domain nowhere.com is real and has MX records pointing to email-hosting.net.au, which appears to have an Exim SMTP server running. Is nobody@nowhere.com meant for public use as a fake email address, or is it just something of yours, or what? When I need an email address for something that should not need my email address and for which I have no interest whatsoever in receiving any emails sent to, I use something @mouse-potato.com. Mouse-potato.com was registered in 1997 by, if I remember correctly, the owner of the Seattle ISP Northwest Nexus. Northwest Nexus is long gone, but he or someone has kept mouse-potato.com alive ever since. The MX record for mouse-potato.com points to mail.mouse-potato.com. The A record for that, www.mouse-potato.com, and mouse-potato.com all give 127.0.0.1. Give some spammer an @mouse-potato.com address, and hopefully they send the spam from the same machine their own SMTP server is on, and so end up just trying to send it to themselves. After he registered it, he stated publicly that it was specifically registered for Northwest Nexus customers, and anyone else who wanted to use it, for making fake email addresses.
- airstrike 6y ago
  > The domain nowhere.com is real and has MX records pointing to email-hosting.net.au, which appears to have an Exim SMTP server running. Is nobody@nowhere.com meant for public use as a fake email address, or is it just something of yours, or what? It's just my own go-to (not-) fake e-mail. I probably tried it the first time when I was 12, and it worked, so whoever actually owns nobody@nowhere.com must be getting a lot of junk... At some point I realized the e-mail actually exists, but oh well... I figure with an e-mail like that they never expected it to be exactly private
  - c22 6y ago
    Who knows what they intended? It's probably not very nice to load them up with extra spam just because you're lazy (? I mean really, what are you gaining here?) I own a domain that is similar (in a "1337" way) to the domain of a CRM SaaS operation. At least once a week one of their customers signs up using my domain in a throwaway fake email address. I find it extremely frustrating. Because of their architecture and mine there is no easy way for me to filter these messages so I am often stuck with the spam in my inbox. I don't hold a grudge or anything, but I wish people would think before they fill in someone else's perfectly valid info into a form they don't want to give their own info to.

dreamcompiler 6y ago

I wish there were a reference set of validated C routines that corresponded to the [most important] RFCs and that everybody could be persuaded to use them. We pretty much have this for crypto, but for everything else on the internet it still seems like the wild west.

layoutIfNeeded 6y ago
I have such a routine for e-mail addresses: int is_valid_email(const char* email) { return strlen(email) > 0; } You're welcome. Coincidentally it also works for validating people's names and addresses too.
- zzo38computer 6y ago
  That isn't very good. I would think better would be: int is_valid_email(const char*email) { return !!*email; } But, either way, it isn't good enough, because it is considered valid even if there is no at sign. With some applications, such as email on a local system, you don't need to worry about that, but on internet, you will need to check that there is a at sign in the email address. So, better would be to check if there is a at sign, and if so, then it is considered to be valid. Therefore, probably the best way is: int is_valid_email(const char*email) { return !!strchr(email,'@'); }
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    I don't see the difference between the one that was linked and the first one you posted, other than the other one invoking undefined behavior if not passed a null-terminated string.
    - zzo38computer 6y ago
      The difference is that it is potentially more efficient (depending what the optimizer does). (At least, it is how I do C programming.)
  - 6y ago

dathinab 6y ago

My favorite `""@example.com`. The semantically empty local part ;=) Oh and `""@[Ipv6:someipv6addres]` because who says that the domain system needs to be used. (Disclaimer: I don't remember if it was Ipv6 or ip-v6, I would have to look that up).

battery_cowboy 6y ago

I've been rejected because i use an .link domain, so it has 4 characters and they theft emails without 3 TLD characters! Luckily I also have an .com in that case.