4 ms·

It is fine to have multiple email addresses connected to a single inbox. Email providers already do normalization like this that is not baked into the spec. Gma

It is fine to have multiple email addresses connected to a single inbox. Email providers already do normalization like this that is not baked into the spec. Gmail for example treats johndoe@gmail.com and john.doe@gmail.com the same.

znpy 4y ago
And that’s why I regularly receive other people’s mail in my gmail inbox, and why i have stopped using gmail for anything important (it’s right to assume that gmail is also sending my emails to other people). Google’s gmail people aren’t really as smart as they think they are.
- scambier 4y ago
  That's something I don't understand. I've always given my email as john.doe@gmail.com, and I sometimes receive emails - addressed to Another John Doe - sent to johndoe@gmail.com. That Another John Doe never, ever had access to johndoe@gmail.com, they just gave a wrong address. That's not gmail's fault.
  - ghaff 4y ago
    Or someone assumed (or just tried) that other email address. I signed up for my university's email forwarding for alumni early on and got my first name as my email. For quite a while, I would get emails, including fairly sensitive ones, sent to me by not yet very email savvy people just assuming you could send an email to someone's first name and it would get to them.
    - derefr 4y ago
      Nah, it happens with mangled names that no bot would ever try to stuff, too. E.g. I own derefr@gmail; but I sometimes receive email from people trying to reach a man named "Derek" — who almost certainly owns the address derek.fr@gmail, but probably typoed it once as dere.fr@, and now his browser autocompletes that into registration forms for him.
    - scambier 4y ago
      > Or someone assumed (or just tried) that other email address. I received 2-3 personal emails, but most of them are automated invoices.
  - alistairSH 4y ago
    That Another John Doe never, ever had access to johndoe@gmail.com, they just gave a wrong address. That's not gmail's fault. This. My wife and I have two flavors of this. Her address is firstmlast@gmail.com. There people frequently forget the m initial and somebody else owns firstlast@gmail.com She's since started using dots first.m.last to mitigate the error. My address is firstlast@gmail, where first and last are not globally common, but are fairly common in Scotland. Once a year or so, I receive email for somebody else that shares my name. I don' know his real email, but I've been "invited" on his family vacations 3-4 times now. Infrequent enough that I just respond "thanks for the invite, but I think you'll be disappointed when I arrive and not the Alistair you were expecting."
    - rovr138 4y ago
      I have a friend that has firstmlast@ and she's friends with firstlast@ because of how common the issue is. It's actually not a super common first and last, so firstlast@ knows when to who to forward.
- Aethylia 4y ago
  This doesn't really make any sense. It's not just gmail that does this, dots are almost always ignored before the @. Nobody else can register an email that is the same as yours but without a dot. So the only way you receive someone else's email is if they give the wrong address.
  - denton-scratch 4y ago
    > It's not just gmail that does this, dots are almost always ignored before the @. That's not my experience. Which non-gmail email software ignores dots before the @? Thinking about this, I guess the sending MTA doesn't care about dots; it goes RCPT TO: <address.with.dots@example.com>. The receiving MTA then has to validate that address; it does that using some account database that isn't typically part of the MTA - it could be a unix account (no dots!), a database table, or an LDAP user. Finally it passes the mail off to a delivery agent, which hopefully relies on the same account database. So the elision of dots appears to be a feature of certain account databases. So which account databases elide dots?
    - account42 4y ago
      MTAs can be configured to additional transforms before looking up the account. For example, postfix's virtual table [0] can be used for this and on my server it does elide dots in the local part (along with everything else). [0] https://www.postfix.org/ADDRESS_REWRITING_README.html#virtual https://www.postfix.org/ADDRESS_REWRITING_README.html#virtua...
  - znpy 4y ago
    Dots are never ignored before the @, and also aren’t ignored after it, for that matter. I guess this is another falsehood people believe about emails. > Nobody else can register an email that is the same as yours but without a dot. It used to be possible, then google decided to stop allowing that (guess why?) And by the way, that’s an arbitrary decision. I have run mail servers and it’s just and cam tell you… it’s an arbitrary decision.
867-5309 4y ago
that cannot be true. I think you meant john+doe edit: wow. goodbye gmail "if your email is johnsmith@gmail.com, you own all dotted versions of your address: john.smith@gmail.com jo.hn.sm.ith@gmail.com j.o.h.n.s.m.i.t.h@gmail.com" >johnsmith@gmail.com and j.o.h.n.s.m.i.t.h@gmail.com are the same address and go to one inbox https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150 https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150
- matsemann 4y ago
  No, it's true. Can place a dot anywhere and it arrives in the same inbox.
- Aethylia 4y ago
  It is true and it's not just gmail, dots before the @ are ignored.
  - moonchild 4y ago
    It may be that some other specific email servers implement similar behaviour to gmail, but that is not true as a general rule.
- l181 4y ago
  Oh but that is true.. :) https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150 https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150
  - vetinari 4y ago
    Well, maybe Google should check their own implementation, because interesting things happen when accounts for both version exist. I have an account with the dot, that was made in age, when Gmail was invite-only. Few years ago, someone created an account without the dot. Yes, I'm receiving their mail, and have no way to contact them, because everything I send out comes back to me.
    - matsemann 4y ago

znpy 4y ago

And that’s why I regularly receive other people’s mail in my gmail inbox, and why i have stopped using gmail for anything important (it’s right to assume that gmail is also sending my emails to other people). Google’s gmail people aren’t really as smart as they think they are.

scambier 4y ago
That's something I don't understand. I've always given my email as john.doe@gmail.com, and I sometimes receive emails - addressed to Another John Doe - sent to johndoe@gmail.com. That Another John Doe never, ever had access to johndoe@gmail.com, they just gave a wrong address. That's not gmail's fault.
- ghaff 4y ago
  Or someone assumed (or just tried) that other email address. I signed up for my university's email forwarding for alumni early on and got my first name as my email. For quite a while, I would get emails, including fairly sensitive ones, sent to me by not yet very email savvy people just assuming you could send an email to someone's first name and it would get to them.
  - derefr 4y ago
    Nah, it happens with mangled names that no bot would ever try to stuff, too. E.g. I own derefr@gmail; but I sometimes receive email from people trying to reach a man named "Derek" — who almost certainly owns the address derek.fr@gmail, but probably typoed it once as dere.fr@, and now his browser autocompletes that into registration forms for him.
  - scambier 4y ago
    > Or someone assumed (or just tried) that other email address. I received 2-3 personal emails, but most of them are automated invoices.
- alistairSH 4y ago
  That Another John Doe never, ever had access to johndoe@gmail.com, they just gave a wrong address. That's not gmail's fault. This. My wife and I have two flavors of this. Her address is firstmlast@gmail.com. There people frequently forget the m initial and somebody else owns firstlast@gmail.com She's since started using dots first.m.last to mitigate the error. My address is firstlast@gmail, where first and last are not globally common, but are fairly common in Scotland. Once a year or so, I receive email for somebody else that shares my name. I don' know his real email, but I've been "invited" on his family vacations 3-4 times now. Infrequent enough that I just respond "thanks for the invite, but I think you'll be disappointed when I arrive and not the Alistair you were expecting."
  - rovr138 4y ago
    I have a friend that has firstmlast@ and she's friends with firstlast@ because of how common the issue is. It's actually not a super common first and last, so firstlast@ knows when to who to forward.
Aethylia 4y ago
This doesn't really make any sense. It's not just gmail that does this, dots are almost always ignored before the @. Nobody else can register an email that is the same as yours but without a dot. So the only way you receive someone else's email is if they give the wrong address.
- denton-scratch 4y ago
  > It's not just gmail that does this, dots are almost always ignored before the @. That's not my experience. Which non-gmail email software ignores dots before the @? Thinking about this, I guess the sending MTA doesn't care about dots; it goes RCPT TO: <address.with.dots@example.com>. The receiving MTA then has to validate that address; it does that using some account database that isn't typically part of the MTA - it could be a unix account (no dots!), a database table, or an LDAP user. Finally it passes the mail off to a delivery agent, which hopefully relies on the same account database. So the elision of dots appears to be a feature of certain account databases. So which account databases elide dots?
  - account42 4y ago
    MTAs can be configured to additional transforms before looking up the account. For example, postfix's virtual table [0] can be used for this and on my server it does elide dots in the local part (along with everything else). [0] https://www.postfix.org/ADDRESS_REWRITING_README.html#virtual https://www.postfix.org/ADDRESS_REWRITING_README.html#virtua...
- znpy 4y ago
  Dots are never ignored before the @, and also aren’t ignored after it, for that matter. I guess this is another falsehood people believe about emails. > Nobody else can register an email that is the same as yours but without a dot. It used to be possible, then google decided to stop allowing that (guess why?) And by the way, that’s an arbitrary decision. I have run mail servers and it’s just and cam tell you… it’s an arbitrary decision.

867-5309 4y ago

that cannot be true. I think you meant john+doe edit: wow. goodbye gmail "if your email is johnsmith@gmail.com, you own all dotted versions of your address: john.smith@gmail.com jo.hn.sm.ith@gmail.com j.o.h.n.s.m.i.t.h@gmail.com" >johnsmith@gmail.com and j.o.h.n.s.m.i.t.h@gmail.com are the same address and go to one inbox https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150 https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150

matsemann 4y ago
No, it's true. Can place a dot anywhere and it arrives in the same inbox.
Aethylia 4y ago
It is true and it's not just gmail, dots before the @ are ignored.
- moonchild 4y ago
  It may be that some other specific email servers implement similar behaviour to gmail, but that is not true as a general rule.
l181 4y ago
Oh but that is true.. :) https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150 https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150
- vetinari 4y ago
  Well, maybe Google should check their own implementation, because interesting things happen when accounts for both version exist. I have an account with the dot, that was made in age, when Gmail was invite-only. Few years ago, someone created an account without the dot. Yes, I'm receiving their mail, and have no way to contact them, because everything I send out comes back to me.
  - matsemann 4y ago