'Posh' EMail Addresses

[robgul]

I've doing this e-mail thing for years - just using a bit of lateral thinking and simple forwarding ..

1  Register a domain name - whether you have .com, .co.uk, .net or whatever is a matter of taste and availability  [I have a very unusual surname so my business - when I used to work  - was    nnnnnnn.co.uk    - I also have a number of other domains ... one is in my sig below     beewee.org.uk  ]

2  All I have done is set up each domain (at the ISP) with "catch-all" forwarding to one single e-mail account (that's my BT Broadband which is <name>@btconnect.com )   - in other words whatever is in front of the  @ symbol, for any of the domains, gets to me via a single access point (BT account)

3  Sending messages from the domain needs BT to set something up called mail-relay - all that means is that they recognise my domain for outward messages - they go through my BT account but show the domain address I'm wanting to send from

4  This is the nifty bit - as the catch-all does just that I can "seed" e-mail addresses that I give to organisations, shops etc - e.g. wiggle@mydomain,  johnlewis@mydomain  etc   - incoming messages get to me via the BT account BUT I can  a) identify where they come from and filter   and/or  b) identify senders that may have sold my e-mail addy or spammers ... and bin the messages.

Still with me ... ?

It works ....  and by having a "posh" .. or perhaps the better word is "professional" e-mail address it all looks more credible - as per the cartoon up-thread.

Now - don't get me started on businesses that just have an "07 ... " mobile phone-number - they look non-established to me.   I have a landline from BT and a mobile from Vodafone - if I'm not here a call to my landline gets me anywhere in the world - when I go out I press a button on the phone by the front door and Mr BT diverts calls ..  a bit of haggling with the BT contract and all calls to my mobile (in the UK) are in the fixed price plan.  Works a treat - our neighbour rang once to say the burglar alarm was going off - seemed a bit surprised that I was in the Bellagio in Las Vegas (false alarm, fortunately)

Isn't technology wonderful!

Rob

[tonycollinet]

Better still, rather than having a catchall, whitelist the specific email addresses you give out (forwarders in cpanel speak). That way, if one of them starts to attract spam, not only do you know who sold it, you just delete the forwarder, and all the spam gets blackholed. No need for any filtering.

It also avoids the problem where spammers (once they know a domain exists) will spam randomcharacters@domain with often many combinations of randomcharacters.

[Polar Bear]

I disagree re businesses and mobiles.   A mobile indicates to me that my call is more likely to be taken as the phone is generally with the person.   Call forwarding is old hat imo. Also, mobiles are usually set up to take messages but landlines seem less so ime.

[Tim Hall]

The MD of our ISP used to use:

a <at> e.gg

Dunno if he still does.
Has caused problems registering with broken websites where it gets rejected as invalid.

He still does!  You think he's going to stop trolling people who can't use the standards properly/

Back when it was all fields round here/over on USENET, someone, can't remember who, with the initials A T, registered a domain in Austria, so his email was something like at<at>at.

Kim will be along in a minute with the details.  Or I dreamt it.

[rr]

Having a made-up and unique surname I have both surname.com and surname.co.uk  I do the same as robgul with the catchall.

[Kim]

Back when it was all fields round here/over on USENET, someone, can't remember who, with the initials A T, registered a domain in Austria, so his email was something like at<at>at.

Kim will be along in a minute with the details.  Or I dreamt it.

Yup, I dreamt it too.  Can't remember who, but there are only about 6 people on usenet, so it can't be too hard to pin down...

[Basil]

Weren't me.  So it's down to five.

[Feanor]

usenet? Never heard of it.
Wasn't me either.

I did always like the Imperial College domain "ick-ack-uck"

[Kim]

Weren't me.  So it's down to five.

An old thread on self-inflicted cycling accidents was referenced on urcm the other day.  One of the posts described drunkenly picking the wrong image of the towpath in the vicinity of the Raddlebarn Road...   

[Basil]

Weren't me.  So it's down to five.

An old thread on self-inflicted cycling accidents was referenced on urcm the other day.  One of the posts described drunkenly picking the wrong image of the towpath in the vicinity of the Raddlebarn Road...   

Ah. 
Did it mention sons?  The post I'm thinking of involved sons.

[Kim]

An old thread on self-inflicted cycling accidents was referenced on urcm the other day.  One of the posts described drunkenly picking the wrong image of the towpath in the vicinity of the Raddlebarn Road...   

Ah. 
Did it mention sons?  The post I'm thinking of involved sons.

No, but it was in an abridged form...

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB&fromgroups=#!topic/uk.rec.cycling/EdkuG5_zdgk

[perpetual dan]

I've got a selection, from yahoo and googlemail, to dan@multiple variants of my.name... via work and ex-work domains. Each has a purpose.
I know people with a separate address for each domain they give an address to, to spot who sells their address for spam.

Like Mrs P. above, I'm puzzled by the use of frivolous email addresses on official forms and also by people giving generic free email addresses when they work for reasonably large organisations.

[Tim Hall]

An old thread on self-inflicted cycling accidents was referenced on urcm the other day.  One of the posts described drunkenly picking the wrong image of the towpath in the vicinity of the Raddlebarn Road...   

Ah. 
Did it mention sons?  The post I'm thinking of involved sons.

Ooh. <fx: penny drops>.

No, but it was in an abridged form...

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en-GB&fromgroups=#!topic/uk.rec.cycling/EdkuG5_zdgk

[Basil]

Ah, not the incident I was thinking of, but yes that's me.  (You knew my surname?)
*wanders off to re-assess thev number of times I've been in the cut.*

*Cut.  Brummigen and Black Country for "Canal"

[Tim Hall]

Ah, not the incident I was thinking of, but yes that's me.  (You knew my surname?)
*wanders off to re-assess thev number of times I've been in the cut.*

*Cut.  Brummigen and Black Country for "Canal"

I don't think we got as far as surnames. Mind you if you had mentioned it I think I would have said "not that bloke that keeps riding into the cut?". You're world famous. In my world anyway.

<look children, proper usenet style thread drift>

[Basil]

Tom B.  I'm really sorry matey.  Here, have your thread back. 

[MattH]

Back when it was all fields round here/over on USENET, someone, can't remember who, with the initials A T, registered a domain in Austria, so his email was something like at<at>at.

Kim will be along in a minute with the details.  Or I dreamt it.

IIRC it was dot <at> dotat.at  (i.e. when spoken it is dot<at>dotat<dot>at)

[Kim]

Ah, Tony Finch!  That's right.

[Basil]

    

In that order.

[drossall]

I've never really bothered with a personalised email address. I've got a range already and one more would just add complexity. I've still got a CompuServe address that derives from the days when I used the early CompuServe for Windows software. It's unremarkable as an address, but it's kind of like the bikes I've had since my early riding days - an old friend that I don't want to let go.

For another take on a posh address, try an email alias from a professional society or your alma mater. I've got an @physics.org address that I've used on a CV.

[Tom B]

Tom B.  I'm really sorry matey.  Here, have your thread back.

Thanks, Basil     
Returned to this for first time since yesterday evening. I didn't expect it to be a short thread, or one that wouldn't go off at a tangent at times

[L CC]

I have friends who have

<hername>@his<townname>home and <hisname>@his<townname>home

I always wondered if they had other address(es) for their other home(s).

My parents are were <hername>and<hisname>dot<theirhouse>@gmail.com, but my mum hated the abuse he put it to, so now she has <hername>dot<housename>@gmail and he has the twonamed one.

fboab was too short, but fukboab is a better option anyway.

[barakta]

Mrs (actually, Dr) P tells me that students really need to ditch their use of email addresses they probably started using aged 14. Writing serious emails to lovekitty999@hotmail.com etc is a bit naff).

Ah yes student email addresses *chortle*. Some of them are clever and funny and I think suitable to be kept, many are variants or nicknames of their name and some are as you say really dodgy and I wouldn't want them on my UCAS application form. 

I have had my barakta at barakta address since 2001 when I met Kim and before that I had barakta at various domains (hotmail from before M$ bought it and usa.net for a while) which was cheap and reliable for teenagers and easier to remember than 101503.2240@compuserve.com which was my other address till 1999. 

[caerau]

Yes I teach at Uni and I have seen this student email address thing.  It can be very inappropriate. But you do have to remember than the applicants are still only 17 in most cases.

Aside from that, I have had a hotmail account since the year dot and I don't really want to change it.  It does everything I want it to do - I've never noticed it attracting security issues, and I really can't be arsed to change it after all these years.  I can't stand people who jump about with email accounts (as well as mobile phone numbers too  )  I don't use it for professional purposes though - that is what my work email account is for.  I find it handy to use the hotmail account for all internet shopping, ebaying and other internet activity so as to minimise marketing bumff in my work email account.

If anyone wants to judge me for having a hotmail account then that says more about them than it does about me as far as I'm concerned. I can certainly do more IT related stuff than that cartoon above might suggest.

[Ham]

compuserve? 5436.1337  predating t'internets. For Miss Ham, I registered worlwidewabbit which she enjoyed when she was younger and avoided all the worst excesses of shinytinkerbell2331 and the like. Otherwise I use surnameforename.co.uk as a standard domain.