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There are some 10minutemail / trashmail providers out there who provide .edu emails - great to get benefits which are only for students free, but sucks for ever

There are some 10minutemail / trashmail providers out there who provide .edu emails - great to get benefits which are only for students free, but sucks for everbody who is implementing these platforms to get those benefits because they can't just check if the domain ends on .edu but rather need to validate against a common list of valid universities...

jeroenhd 1y ago
> rather need to validate against a common list of valid universities Don't you need that already anyway? There's no standard for how universities format their academic email addresses. Plus, .edu only applies to American universities. Services validating if you're a "real" student by checking for .edu emails were quite annoying during my time as a student. A lot of these platforms don't seem to even know .edu is an American thing.
heavensteeth 1y ago
Given the list of non-university .edu domains is static (or even decreasing assuming some expire), couldn't you keep a list of those instead?
bryanlarsen 1y ago
> validate against a common list of valid universities Considering that many universities provide email addresses to alumni, I don't think that heuristic would work either.
- Loughla 1y ago
  Do they? The institutions I've worked with shut off e-mail access between 6 months and 1 year after a student is no longer active. I wonder what the benefit is.
  - bryanlarsen 1y ago
    The benefit is that it makes it easier to hit them up for donations. I'm not sure how common it is, but my wife has an edu email address despite being well over twenty years from graduation.
  - AlotOfReading 1y ago
    I still get the occasional email to mine inviting me to student events. Not sure they realize I graduated, but it was long enough ago that some of the buildings the events are held in didn't exist when I attended.
  - pavel_lishin 1y ago
    I distinctly remember that Freshman year, we were told in some big auditorium, during onboarding, that we should start using our university-provided emails as our primary "professional" emails. Someone then asked what happens when we graduate and lose access to those emails, and they didn't have a particularly good answer. I think that was also the same onboarding where they passed around a piece of paper for us to sign in with our name and social security number.
- jz_ 1y ago
  Despite originally saying it was a perk of graduation, mine ended cutting access after 10 years by citing cost saving (I imagine Google Workspace bills add up quickly, compared to self-hosting email). I wouldn't be surprised if this is the trend now.

jeroenhd 1y ago

> rather need to validate against a common list of valid universities Don't you need that already anyway? There's no standard for how universities format their academic email addresses. Plus, .edu only applies to American universities. Services validating if you're a "real" student by checking for .edu emails were quite annoying during my time as a student. A lot of these platforms don't seem to even know .edu is an American thing.

heavensteeth 1y ago

Given the list of non-university .edu domains is static (or even decreasing assuming some expire), couldn't you keep a list of those instead?

bryanlarsen 1y ago

> validate against a common list of valid universities Considering that many universities provide email addresses to alumni, I don't think that heuristic would work either.

Loughla 1y ago
Do they? The institutions I've worked with shut off e-mail access between 6 months and 1 year after a student is no longer active. I wonder what the benefit is.
- bryanlarsen 1y ago
  The benefit is that it makes it easier to hit them up for donations. I'm not sure how common it is, but my wife has an edu email address despite being well over twenty years from graduation.
- AlotOfReading 1y ago
  I still get the occasional email to mine inviting me to student events. Not sure they realize I graduated, but it was long enough ago that some of the buildings the events are held in didn't exist when I attended.
- pavel_lishin 1y ago
  I distinctly remember that Freshman year, we were told in some big auditorium, during onboarding, that we should start using our university-provided emails as our primary "professional" emails. Someone then asked what happens when we graduate and lose access to those emails, and they didn't have a particularly good answer. I think that was also the same onboarding where they passed around a piece of paper for us to sign in with our name and social security number.
jz_ 1y ago
Despite originally saying it was a perk of graduation, mine ended cutting access after 10 years by citing cost saving (I imagine Google Workspace bills add up quickly, compared to self-hosting email). I wouldn't be surprised if this is the trend now.