4 ms·

I’m curious why you see a difference between the two? Phone companies have been giving away your phone number for years, it gets more spam then my email address

I’m curious why you see a difference between the two? Phone companies have been giving away your phone number for years, it gets more spam then my email address at this point, which has made me disable it for all incoming calls except those in my contacts. At this point, none of us even use phones, my family pretty much use Zoom and at work everything is Google Meet, my phone function is basically a dead function at this point.

kevincox 6y ago
My phone number is tied to a geographical location. (Sure, I can keep it alive, but now I am collecting phone numbers as I move around). My email represents me, and I fully own it with minimal upkeep costs.
MrDOS 6y ago
I don't truly own my phone number. I barely control it. I can move it from provider to provider, kind of, but it's still not _my_ number – the number is a side effect of having cell service. In particular, if I move to a new country, what happens to my phone number? (Having recently done so, I still don't know: for now, I'm paying two cellphone bills, but that's obviously not a long-term solution, and I don't know what is. Port it to Twilio, I guess.) You can make the argument that I don't truly “owns” the domain name off of which my e-mail address hangs, either, but it's a much better situation than phone number ownership. There, at least, the constraints of ownership (rental) are clearly defined, as is my ability to move it between registrars.
- Semaphor 6y ago
  Yeah, that's pretty much my thinking. Phone numbers are extremely brittle. And I didn't even think of changing countries, which might be in my future.
Semaphor 6y ago
I'm not sure I understand you. You ask me why I see a difference and then list reasons a phone number sucks?
- bluejekyll 6y ago
  It sounded like you saw phone numbers as something to protect, keep private. I was asking from that frame of reference, and then pointed out how non-private they are today. Yes I think they suck, but do they suck more or less than en email? Not clear.

kevincox 6y ago

My phone number is tied to a geographical location. (Sure, I can keep it alive, but now I am collecting phone numbers as I move around). My email represents me, and I fully own it with minimal upkeep costs.

MrDOS 6y ago

I don't truly own my phone number. I barely control it. I can move it from provider to provider, kind of, but it's still not _my_ number – the number is a side effect of having cell service. In particular, if I move to a new country, what happens to my phone number? (Having recently done so, I still don't know: for now, I'm paying two cellphone bills, but that's obviously not a long-term solution, and I don't know what is. Port it to Twilio, I guess.) You can make the argument that I don't truly “owns” the domain name off of which my e-mail address hangs, either, but it's a much better situation than phone number ownership. There, at least, the constraints of ownership (rental) are clearly defined, as is my ability to move it between registrars.

Semaphor 6y ago
Yeah, that's pretty much my thinking. Phone numbers are extremely brittle. And I didn't even think of changing countries, which might be in my future.

Semaphor 6y ago

I'm not sure I understand you. You ask me why I see a difference and then list reasons a phone number sucks?

bluejekyll 6y ago
It sounded like you saw phone numbers as something to protect, keep private. I was asking from that frame of reference, and then pointed out how non-private they are today. Yes I think they suck, but do they suck more or less than en email? Not clear.