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Comment by docsaintly | Hacker News Reader

I think using example.com is a bit of a trick question. It is known as an example domain which is invalid for all purposes, except of course for serving as an example. :)

https://www.iana.org/help/example-domains

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Exactly. Not valid because it can't be routed.

An explanation of the use of example.com would have informed users that addresses should be evaluated as such, otherwise, AFAICT, all of the examples provided are invalid.

Yes. If I'd known that other questions would also use example.com, I would have answered the first question correctly.

I've actually been wondering for a while if example.com is a valid example email address.

Well, "valid," yes, but "deliverable" thankfully, no

  $ dig MX example.com.

  ;; ANSWER SECTION:
  example.com.  3600 IN MX 0 .

Almost certainly the same for its .org .net and .example friends. There were some other TLDs that were designed for use in documentation, but I don't have the RFC in front of me right now to cite them

Some of the other examples which are "technically valid but obsolete" I would consider safe to call invalid for practical purposes.

Yeah, I almost put a disclaimer at the end saying that while these examples are valid according to the spec, that has no bearing on whether they’re usable in practice. Email is the Wild West.

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