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*@gmail.com

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Re: *@gmail.com

#171

Post by c0pium »

InsomniacL wrote: post #105
ethbr1 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does lead to people sending mail to the wrong address, from personal experience since Gmail was in beta. I've gotten sensitive emails and account signups with different dots for years. But the cause of that appears to be user error -- people thinking they own email addresses that are not actually theirs.

> I've gotten sensitive emails and account signups with different dots for years. Please, please give an example.. Also, read this.. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en#zippy=%... > if your email is johnsmith@gmail.com, you own all dotted versions of your address > If anyone tries to create a Gmail account with a dotted version of your username, they'll get an error saying the username is already tak…

This happens to me all the time. There are two people, one in Massachusetts and one in Suffolk UK who have my same name and regularly put in FirstLast@gmail as opposed to the first.last@gmail that I use. The Massachusetts person does this because they forget that their gmail is the full version of “first” as opposed to the shorter version I use. The Brit is confusing gmail for hotmail. Yes really. Most people don’t care that much about computers. If it’s possible to screw up, someone will.

Someone gets righteously indignant that this cannot happen in every thread about dots in gmail, despite the fact that there are many people it happens to. They’re not making it up, why would someone do that?

Re: *@gmail.com

#172

Post by dinkleberg »

asddubs wrote: post #164
dinkleberg wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve got firstname.lastname@gmail.com and apparently someone with my same name believes they have the address with no dot, as they keep signing up for services like Facebook with it and sharing it with their friends who email me. It is quite the odd situation. I reply to their friends saying they have the wrong email, but they don’t seem to believe me. And they keep signing up for things despite presumably never bein…

probably has two email accounts, on with firstnamelastname and the other with @gmail.com, and keeps mixing them up

Yeah that does seem likely

Re: *@gmail.com

#173

Post by johnwalkr »

Steuard wrote: post #122
johnwalkr wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The “+” aspect mostly works great but has some weird edge cases when other companies don’t accept them. For example, I have a few apple ids using this feature, from moving to different countries. Apple no longer allows new accounts using “+”. My existing accounts work for iCloud, app, store etc but they do not work for logging into Apple support.

Oh, yikes: when did the + stop working for Apple support? That's going to bite me at some point. (And in general, yeah: I've had multiple cases over the years where the "+" only caused problems after signup. One of several reasons that I eventually stopped using those forms.) And just to put it out there: "+" addresses aren't specifically a Gmail thing, they've been supported by most(?) mail servers for a very long t…

I think it stopped working about 3 years ago for me. I was in Japan for 10 years and moved last year, so I have been using a +japan address with apple. Of course in that time I've been using icloud and iphotos so I changed the region to my current country rather than make yet another account. I also removed the "non+" gmail address from a very old apple id thinking I could then attach that gmail address. Apple told me it would take a few months for the system to let me.

It's been a nightmare. Apple lets account creation succeed without email verification and with SMS verification. So with my very common name, as soon Apple allows it, someone with a similar name uses my email to make an apple id, preventing me from using it. Without knowing or owning their phone number, it's impossible for me to fix. It takes 2-3 weeks and multiple hour long phone calls with apple to free the email again, at which point someone else uses it and the process repeats. Every phone call is horrible, it is really confusing to explain the problem. Every phone call starts with the support staff believing I am typo'ing my email address. After a few times I gave up trying to fix it.

Re: *@gmail.com

#174

Post by stvltvs »

seatsniffer wrote: post #162
numpad0 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem he has with the word is data is the plural(!) for singular datum. So one data is datum, two cactuses are cacti, and two datas is data. Maybe not always colloquially but technically. Hence anecdatum and anecdata.

It depends on where you are. In the US it's like you say. But in the UK for example they will often use data as singular.

"Datum" is rarely used in the US, unless you want to sound pretentious. (This coming from someone who cringes every time "who/whom" is used incorrectly.) We use "data" as an uncountable noun.

Re: *@gmail.com

#175

Post by jnrk »

rcarmo wrote: post #3

This is a great reminder that Gmail ignores dots on the left side of the @ symbol, which means I am constantly getting e-mail for other people. The “+” tagging was a great idea, but the fact that incorrect address matching has become a “feature” (and not fixed over decades) plus constant spates of spam has made me believe there’s nobody left at the helm who actually understands e-mail. I’ve kept my Gmail addresses fo…

> but moved everything of consequence to better providers.

What other providers do you recommend?

Re: *@gmail.com

#176

Post by InsomniacL »

c0pium wrote: post #171
InsomniacL wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've gotten sensitive emails and account signups with different dots for years. Please, please give an example.. Also, read this.. https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en#zippy=%... > if your email is johnsmith@gmail.com, you own all dotted versions of your address > If anyone tries to create a Gmail account with a dotted version of your username, they'll get an error saying the username is already tak…

This happens to me all the time. There are two people, one in Massachusetts and one in Suffolk UK who have my same name and regularly put in FirstLast@gmail as opposed to the first.last@gmail that I use. The Massachusetts person does this because they forget that their gmail is the full version of “first” as opposed to the shorter version I use. The Brit is confusing gmail for hotmail. Yes really. Most people don’t c…

You own both FirstLast@gmail and first.last@gmail. Try send an email to both, and you should get both emails.

They are likely making a typeo elsewhere in their email address which is causing the confusion.

for example:

Steve.foo@gmail.com

stevenfoo@gmai.com

Notice one is Steve and the other is Steven, the dot has nothing to do with it.

Re: *@gmail.com

#177

Post by richardw »

InsomniacL wrote: post #66
richardw wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Drives me insane. And so many people and systems auto adjust addresses, produce almost mine, and then gmail delivers the random output. I once set up a google group to forward mail to. I’d pay to block the “full stop ignore” feature.

Can you give an example please? How dose ignoring dots cause you to receive other peoples mail?

Thanks for checking.

One person is x.yz@gmail. Tens of times I’ve had people or systems strip the x, I am y.z and get their mail. Invites to funerals. Business mail. Admittedly reduced lately, he probably uses it less.

One professor has a “t” in his name, so “ytz”. People miss the t and send to yz. Dot gets ignored so I get those. I get assignments, or people pleading for extensions. That’s stopped over time.

The stuff is important so I tried hard to get it to the right person. But a bounce to the sender would have been better. It’s a bit wearying to be a post forwarder.

Most of the spam I get is to yz. Some makes it through. I’ve never used that version, ever. I just checked spam now. First 4 messages were to “yz”.

So many mistakes get sent to that version. After many years I tried setting a rule to block that version because it’s definitely not for me, but no go (although maybe that’s why I get less now of the above two examples. I’ll check my rules in the morning). I’ve had the address since the earliest intro-only days so it’s had time to add crud.

Re: *@gmail.com

#178

Post by philwelch »

TheDong wrote: post #63
jug wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LOL this reminds me of a hilarious bug (but only in hindsight!) I had with Discord just three days ago! I tried to login to Discord. It detected a novel browser or location. Sure, this stuff can happen. It wanted to confirm that I was still me and asked me for my e-mail address. I gave it and it said "This e-mail address is already registered". What. Of course it is. It's me. Mine. The one I have registered with you.…

This isn't a bug. Instead of clicking the "login" button on discord's home page, you clicked the "Open discord in your browser" button. This, by default if you're not logged in, takes you to a create account flow. The prompt you entered your _username_ into was the "Pick a display name" prompt. If you enter, say, "user" it silently adds numbers to your displayname to make a new username ("user1234"), rather than redi…

> This isn't a bug.

Okay.

> Instead of clicking the "login" button on discord's home page, you clicked the "Open discord in your browser" button.

Sure.

> This, by default if you're not logged in, takes you to a create account flow.

That is a UX bug! Why does opening discord in my browser automatically imply I need to create a new account?

> I know people who use hacker news are on-average much less tech savvy than the average discord user

And yet, somehow, much more tech savvy than the average Discord UX designer.

Re: *@gmail.com

#179

Post by rcarmo »

laurentlb wrote: post #4
rcarmo wrote: post #3

This is a great reminder that Gmail ignores dots on the left side of the @ symbol, which means I am constantly getting e-mail for other people. The “+” tagging was a great idea, but the fact that incorrect address matching has become a “feature” (and not fixed over decades) plus constant spates of spam has made me believe there’s nobody left at the helm who actually understands e-mail. I’ve kept my Gmail addresses fo…

Can you clarify how ignoring the dots is a problem?

I get literally hundreds of unsolicited emails a week.

Re: *@gmail.com

#180

Post by ethbr1 »

InsomniacL wrote: post #176
c0pium wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This happens to me all the time. There are two people, one in Massachusetts and one in Suffolk UK who have my same name and regularly put in FirstLast@gmail as opposed to the first.last@gmail that I use. The Massachusetts person does this because they forget that their gmail is the full version of “first” as opposed to the shorter version I use. The Brit is confusing gmail for hotmail. Yes really. Most people don’t c…

You own both FirstLast@gmail and first.last@gmail. Try send an email to both, and you should get both emails. They are likely making a typeo elsewhere in their email address which is causing the confusion. for example: Steve.foo@gmail.com stevenfoo@gmai.com Notice one is Steve and the other is Steven, the dot has nothing to do with it.

No one misunderstands that, as that's what parent said.
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