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We’ve done this for a long while too. You can use subaddressing, but you’re still limited to one account per “base email”. We also normalize dots and other meth

We’ve done this for a long while too. You can use subaddressing, but you’re still limited to one account per “base email”. We also normalize dots and other methods of reusing an email account.

ryandrake 2y ago
Just changing the delimiter would probably thwart most efforts like this. I self host so am not limited to the + character. So, I currently use name-subaddress@domain. I could easily switch to using underscore as my delimiter. Or I could just use subaddress@domain. This is dead simple and I don’t even have commercial motivation. Good luck!
- mynameisvlad 2y ago
  I mean, sure, but it does thwart the vast majority of users who don’t even know this is an option. Most people don't know you can have an email from someone other than the major providers, let alone on a custom domain or selfhosted. At the end of the day, nothing will thwart a determined person. But that’s not the goal. If it deters the vast majority of your users from making duplicate accounts, then it’s still a success. Perfect is the enemy of good, after all.
  - xp84 2y ago
    Yes, and another super cool thing is the prevention of accidental screwups where someone typos their email. If the typo collides with an existing account after normalization, it could be (correctly) rejected. Without this normalization index, you could have ronx@gmail pre-existing, someone trying to type "rob.x" typos "ron.x" -- and now a bunch of emails start going out to poor "ronx" (who often doesn't understand what's going on, thinks his account is 'hacked,' etc. Ideally, the system would (for Gmail addresses) reject "ron.x" knowing it's basically tied to an existing user.
Marsymars 2y ago
> We also normalize dots and other methods of reusing an email account. Is that limited by domain? gmail's dot handling isn't at all standard; e.g. john.doe@outlook.com and johndoe@outlook.com are different accounts, as are john.doe@icloud.com and johndoe@icloud.com.
- mynameisvlad 2y ago
  Yes. Some of it is handled by our email verification provider while others are done in-house based on real-world experience. We handle a bunch of the major domains that our users use.

ryandrake 2y ago

Just changing the delimiter would probably thwart most efforts like this. I self host so am not limited to the + character. So, I currently use name-subaddress@domain. I could easily switch to using underscore as my delimiter. Or I could just use subaddress@domain. This is dead simple and I don’t even have commercial motivation. Good luck!

mynameisvlad 2y ago
I mean, sure, but it does thwart the vast majority of users who don’t even know this is an option. Most people don't know you can have an email from someone other than the major providers, let alone on a custom domain or selfhosted. At the end of the day, nothing will thwart a determined person. But that’s not the goal. If it deters the vast majority of your users from making duplicate accounts, then it’s still a success. Perfect is the enemy of good, after all.
- xp84 2y ago
  Yes, and another super cool thing is the prevention of accidental screwups where someone typos their email. If the typo collides with an existing account after normalization, it could be (correctly) rejected. Without this normalization index, you could have ronx@gmail pre-existing, someone trying to type "rob.x" typos "ron.x" -- and now a bunch of emails start going out to poor "ronx" (who often doesn't understand what's going on, thinks his account is 'hacked,' etc. Ideally, the system would (for Gmail addresses) reject "ron.x" knowing it's basically tied to an existing user.

Marsymars 2y ago

> We also normalize dots and other methods of reusing an email account. Is that limited by domain? gmail's dot handling isn't at all standard; e.g. john.doe@outlook.com and johndoe@outlook.com are different accounts, as are john.doe@icloud.com and johndoe@icloud.com.

mynameisvlad 2y ago
Yes. Some of it is handled by our email verification provider while others are done in-house based on real-world experience. We handle a bunch of the major domains that our users use.