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Comment by walrus01 | Hacker News Reader

Opposite example: I own firstname@lastname.com and my spouse also uses firstname@lastname.com for most emails. We point the MX record for lastname.com at an email server we fully control.

About 1 in 10 people that they give the address to does not believe that it's a real email address, or doesn't understand the basic concept that it's possible for a person to own surname.com as an actual domain that they fully control the email on. The recipients assume that my spouse is so epically clueless that they're giving a mistaken email address which goes nowhere.

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I've been there so many times. Gets old real fast. Many people are simply incredulous that there isn't a "gmail" or "yahoo" etc in my email address.

basically "no, but what is your real email address?"

Some degree of confusion happens probably 1 in 5 times giving out the address in person, not my original estimate of 1 in 10...

I wonder what would happen if I gave my =@[mydomain.tld] (mydomain is not my domain :)). I have such an address, but haven't tried to actively give it to anyone outside of people who hit my website. Probably a major confusion.

There are a lot of funny looking e-mail addresses one can create by crafting a local part with acceptable symbols, or by using quotes. Say:

   {+}@abc.tld
   !@abc.tld
   ?@abc.tld
   {|@abc.tld

I have a catch-all email inbox at surname.com for any nonexistent inbox, so I could totally give away throwaway one use addresses like teledildonics6000@surname.com

I have kept a throwaway at gmail@surname.com to have fun watching people type it the other way around.

This 100% mirrors my experience, and not just obscure TLDs. Despite owning <my name>.com, I always, always defer to a @gmail.com address.

Outside of my small bubble of tech savvy folk, not a single person has looked at my perfectly valid email address and thought it wasn't a typo or lame joke.

If I was a company, <name>@<company>.com is totally fine, but as soon as <company> becomes a <name> all bets are off.

I’ve been tempted to acquire a email address for a TLD that has it’s own MX record. Most software doesn’t understand that addresses like postmaster@ai are well formed.

See https://serverfault.com/questions/154991/why-do-some-tld-hav...

Really? I've been using a domain name that is my name for years. I've never had a single problem or anyone question on.

'walrus01 did specifically say that this happens to their spouse, so, I do wonder if this is gendered or otherwise based on presentation/stereotypes. I get little pushback on catchall addresses at my domain (I give $company@ldpreload.com to every company), but I can imagine that if I didn't look like a 20-something guy in a T-shirt and jeans and messenger bag, who therefore stereotypically understands the internet, people would be more likely to question me.

Tangentially related annecdote: you used to be able to get email addresses @bestaatniet.nl which basically translates to @doesntexist.com. I stopped using that address pretty quickly.

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