4 ms·

I agree with the point about non common top level domains. I was considering getting firstname@lastname.email at one point, but decided against it because I ima

I agree with the point about non common top level domains. I was considering getting firstname@lastname.email at one point, but decided against it because I imagine I’d have to explain the concept of the .email tld to a lot of non technical people.

bierjunge 5y ago
I've pushed it even harder with a gTLD ('.jetzt' -> 'now' in German). My email looks like ${firstname}@${some-german-word}.jetzt and I never had a problem with German speaking people. Ok, some people, especially state officials, are asking if it's a joke, because they never heard about gTLD's, but it's pretty rare. I wouldn't use it outside of German speaking regions and that's why I still have a ${lastname}${firstname}@gmail.com address.
- flemhans 5y ago
  Luckily for Danes, the word for 'now' is 'nu', so we've been able to joke around with .nu even before the new gTLDs arrived.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    But I think the majority of sites ostensibly hosted in -- uh, is it Nuau or Nauru? Some tiny Pacific island state, anyway -- the majority of sites "there" are in Swedish, I'm almost sure. Because "nu" means "now" in Swedish, too.
OJFord 5y ago
I received a phone call from a jeweller who was distressed that the email address on my order had 'our web address in it'. (Before the `@`.) I did my best to explain it briefly to a clearly non-technical but savvy-enough-to-worry person; I don't think he quite understood, but more was satisfied having spoken to me that I didn't 'sound like a cyber hacker' or whatever. Generally I find it nothing but helpful to do this, but it is awkward over the phone, and I often chicken out if asked other than in a web form for my address, and give something more generic. I received similar entertainment from having to provide my full 'memorable phrase' for password reset over the phone. I only ever expected to enter it into a web form, so I just used a randomly generated string from `pass`. It was 100ch long with symbols, and I had to read the whole damn thing out. I say entertainment, perhaps only in retrospect. The guy obviously enjoyed it though, like there was some point well before the 100th character of random alphanumersymbolic nonsense in response to 'what was your first teacher's name' where it must surely have become clear I had the answer. (Also the faintly chuckled 'yes please sir' when I paused before starting to ask 'er, all of it?')
- t0mas88 5y ago
  I had this back in the pre-AWS days where our datacenter provider had such a system and I called them every couple of weeks when we needed a disk replaced or something. I memorised the 20 char random string and put it as the answer for all the questions. "The brand of my first car? Wel... [20 char random gibberish]" got even funnier when their policy became to ask at least 3 questions.
- kadoban 5y ago
  For the "memorable phrase" thing, you may have already figured this out, but I find it's better to generate random passphrases for those. A string of words is a _lot_ easier to say and verify.
  - OJFord 5y ago
    Yeah, he asked me for a new one as part of the reset (or just for his further amusement?!) - I just used my brain's PRNG for a few words for that.
- toast0 5y ago
  I've had a couple places where I had to go through customer service to get my new account activated because they thought my <theirname>@<verb>.us looked fishy. But I also have a normal enough sounding four letter .org that I can use to seem normal; and a gmail for those couple of occassions where the other end is really inflexible, otoh, there's a handful of people who give my gmail address to their banks and real estate agents and prospective employers, ugh.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    And their kids' daycare / schools, their church, their car loan companies, their real estate agents, their publishers, their horse show judges, their computer game, paintball, and highschool sports practice sites -- yeah, looking at you, Cade C... But yeah, prospective employers is ugh, indeed: I went to the effort of looking up the intended recipient's phone number and called her -- on my dime, from halfway across the world -- so she wouldn't miss the interview the mail was about... And that bitch Christina C was apparently going to blow it off anyway, so far from a thank you, what I got was a complaint that my accent was hard to understand.

bierjunge 5y ago

I've pushed it even harder with a gTLD ('.jetzt' -> 'now' in German). My email looks like ${firstname}@${some-german-word}.jetzt and I never had a problem with German speaking people. Ok, some people, especially state officials, are asking if it's a joke, because they never heard about gTLD's, but it's pretty rare. I wouldn't use it outside of German speaking regions and that's why I still have a ${lastname}${firstname}@gmail.com address.

flemhans 5y ago
Luckily for Danes, the word for 'now' is 'nu', so we've been able to joke around with .nu even before the new gTLDs arrived.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  But I think the majority of sites ostensibly hosted in -- uh, is it Nuau or Nauru? Some tiny Pacific island state, anyway -- the majority of sites "there" are in Swedish, I'm almost sure. Because "nu" means "now" in Swedish, too.

OJFord 5y ago

I received a phone call from a jeweller who was distressed that the email address on my order had 'our web address in it'. (Before the `@`.) I did my best to explain it briefly to a clearly non-technical but savvy-enough-to-worry person; I don't think he quite understood, but more was satisfied having spoken to me that I didn't 'sound like a cyber hacker' or whatever. Generally I find it nothing but helpful to do this, but it is awkward over the phone, and I often chicken out if asked other than in a web form for my address, and give something more generic. I received similar entertainment from having to provide my full 'memorable phrase' for password reset over the phone. I only ever expected to enter it into a web form, so I just used a randomly generated string from `pass`. It was 100ch long with symbols, and I had to read the whole damn thing out. I say entertainment, perhaps only in retrospect. The guy obviously enjoyed it though, like there was some point well before the 100th character of random alphanumersymbolic nonsense in response to 'what was your first teacher's name' where it must surely have become clear I had the answer. (Also the faintly chuckled 'yes please sir' when I paused before starting to ask 'er, all of it?')

t0mas88 5y ago
I had this back in the pre-AWS days where our datacenter provider had such a system and I called them every couple of weeks when we needed a disk replaced or something. I memorised the 20 char random string and put it as the answer for all the questions. "The brand of my first car? Wel... [20 char random gibberish]" got even funnier when their policy became to ask at least 3 questions.
kadoban 5y ago
For the "memorable phrase" thing, you may have already figured this out, but I find it's better to generate random passphrases for those. A string of words is a _lot_ easier to say and verify.
- OJFord 5y ago
  Yeah, he asked me for a new one as part of the reset (or just for his further amusement?!) - I just used my brain's PRNG for a few words for that.
toast0 5y ago
I've had a couple places where I had to go through customer service to get my new account activated because they thought my <theirname>@<verb>.us looked fishy. But I also have a normal enough sounding four letter .org that I can use to seem normal; and a gmail for those couple of occassions where the other end is really inflexible, otoh, there's a handful of people who give my gmail address to their banks and real estate agents and prospective employers, ugh.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  And their kids' daycare / schools, their church, their car loan companies, their real estate agents, their publishers, their horse show judges, their computer game, paintball, and highschool sports practice sites -- yeah, looking at you, Cade C... But yeah, prospective employers is ugh, indeed: I went to the effort of looking up the intended recipient's phone number and called her -- on my dime, from halfway across the world -- so she wouldn't miss the interview the mail was about... And that bitch Christina C was apparently going to blow it off anyway, so far from a thank you, what I got was a complaint that my accent was hard to understand.