# Do super-famous people have email? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 17, 2008, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265 "2008-06-17T22:34:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/21 "2008-06-18T11:35:35Z")
When I was heavily involved in the NASCAR sim community about 5 years ago, I moderated a very popular forum. Through this I acquired the email addresses of at least 20 drivers that have competed at the Sprint Cup level including a couple of champions and the most popular driver in NASCAR. I still have their email addresses in my Outlook address book. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/59ef9b/32.png) [@Don\_t\_fight\_the\_hypothetical](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_t_fight_the_hypothetical)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/22 "2008-06-18T14:26:55Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] Bill Clinton had an e-mail address while in office. However, he only used it a few times. He knew that e-mail messages can hang around forever and he wanted to avoid that. That is good advice for many in the public eye and very smart for him. [/QUOTE] Sure, if you’ve got something to hide. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/23 "2008-06-18T15:36:44Z")
I’m envisioning a lot of “whitelisting” where emails to $celebrity will only get through if they’re either from a pre-defined list of approved addresses, or if they include a specific keyword in the subject line or text. (The password for July is “39buzzingbeez”) With most ISPs, this is pretty easy to set up so unworthy emails are silently trashed at the ISP’s servers before coming down the line to your computer. Frighteningly, that 4 million emails per day figure for Bill Gates is four years out of date, and I’d be willing to guess it’s closer to seven or eight million a day now. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/24 "2008-06-18T15:37:52Z")
[QUOTE=racer72] Through this I acquired the email addresses of at least 20 drivers that have competed at the Sprint Cup level including a couple of champions and the most popular driver in NASCAR. I still have their email addresses in my Outlook address book. [/QUOTE] Dale Earnhardt Sr. still has email? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![TroubleAgain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e480ec/32.png) [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/25 "2008-06-18T15:57:19Z")
[QUOTE=Really Not All That Bright] Dale Earnhardt Sr. still has email? :eek: [/QUOTE] Yeah, but he has it forwarded to his [afterlife.com](http://afterlife.com) address. :dubious: 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Risha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5fc32e/32.png) [@Risha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Risha)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/26 "2008-06-18T17:04:29Z")
You’ll trip across a number of writers out here on the intertubes - for example, I’m in the same snark community as one of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy writers (whom I embarrassingly fangirlled over for a moment when I realized that it was actually her. She politely forgave me and told the story of how she did the same thing the first time she met Heinlein). There are famous romance writers who show up on [Smart Bitches](http://www.smartbitchestrashybooks.com/). And there’s a moderately famous and award winning fantasy writer who travels in the same fandom circles I do, though she tries to keep her real name pretty secret. Vaguely related, [Curt Schilling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curt_schilling) is a huge video game geek, and he has been showing up as a regular on one of the biggest World of Warcast podcasts, [The Instance](http://www.myextralife.com/wow/), for a while now. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/27 "2008-06-18T18:00:08Z")
[QUOTE=Tapioca Dextrin] [billg@microsoft.com](mailto:billg@microsoft.com) apparently, he gets around 4 million e-mails a day :eek: [/QUOTE] That’s great. It still doesn’t give him permission to never answer me though. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/28 "2008-06-18T20:08:09Z")
Now that he’s not working full-time at Microsoft, he just might answer your email. ---
**Author:** ![filmyak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@filmyak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmyak)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/29 "2008-06-18T20:45:28Z")
[QUOTE=Risha] You’ll trip across a number of writers out here on the intertubes [/QUOTE] I’ve found I’ve been able to contact several fairly prominent authors via their websites. I haven’t tried that many, but several mystery writers, fantasy writers, sci-fi writers… if the author has a website and you send an email, you may just get a reply. Heck, while on my honeymoon in Maui several years ago, I was reading one of Lawrence Block’s HitList books – about a professional hitman – and someone drowned near our hotel in a manner eerily reminiscent of the way a character was killed in the book. I sent off a quick email to Mr. Block informing him of this, and shortly afterwards received a reply with an apology that his killer was interfering with my honeymon. OK, he’s not at the level of a Bill Gates or movie star, but he’s still better known than I am. =) ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/30 "2008-06-18T20:48:04Z")
[QUOTE=gotpasswords] I’m envisioning a lot of “whitelisting” where emails to $celebrity will only get through if they’re either from a pre-defined list of approved addresses, or if they include a specific keyword in the subject line or text. (The password for July is “39buzzingbeez”) [/QUOTE] This would be my guess, too. I remember reading somewhere that Donny Osmond’s close friends knew to put his initials on the envelope in some special way so they’d go straight to Donny without being opened by his staff. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/31 "2008-06-18T21:13:36Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867] I think the Queen and Prince Phillip were given email addresses back in the 70s or 80s, but I highy doubt either of them actually use them. [/QUOTE] What? They had email in the 70s? ---
**Author:** ![Soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/32 "2008-06-18T21:18:58Z")
For what it’s worth, I just emailed the Pope. Just checking in, you know. I imagine he’ll never actually see it, but what the heck. Maybe we’ll become pals! ---
**Author:** ![chorpler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chorpler/32/2888_2.png) [@chorpler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chorpler)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/33 "2008-06-18T22:04:40Z")
[QUOTE=filmyak] I’ve found I’ve been able to contact several fairly prominent authors via their websites. I haven’t tried that many, but several mystery writers, fantasy writers, sci-fi writers… if the author has a website and you send an email, you may just get a reply. Heck, while on my honeymoon in Maui several years ago, I was reading one of Lawrence Block’s HitList books – about a professional hitman – and someone drowned near our hotel in a manner eerily reminiscent of the way a character was killed in the book. I sent off a quick email to Mr. Block informing him of this, and shortly afterwards received a reply with an apology that his killer was interfering with my honeymon. [/QUOTE] That is so cool. You might have passed Keller in the lobby at one point! I’ve gotten e-mail responses from Scott Adams, Robert J. Sawyer, Larry Niven, Orson Scott Card, Tim Dorsey, and several other authors that I can’t recall at the moment. They’ve all been pretty darn friendly. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2008, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/34 "2008-06-18T22:22:55Z")
[QUOTE=Soul] For what it’s worth, I just emailed the Pope. Just checking in, you know. I imagine he’ll never actually see it, but what the heck. Maybe we’ll become pals! [/QUOTE] Post: Average. User name: Not bad. Combination: Priceless. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/35 "2008-06-19T06:38:10Z")
I’ve received email responses over the years from: Rosie O’Donnell, John Grisham, Scott Adams, Keith Knight, Bill Gates and RuPaul. Now THERE’S a dinner party guest list, eh? ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/36 "2008-06-19T09:21:13Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] What? They had email in the 70s? [/QUOTE] [Even earlier:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email#Origin) > [@](#): > > E-mail started in 1965 as a way for multiple users of a time-sharing mainframe computer to communicate. Although the exact history is murky, among the first systems to have such a facility were SDC’s Q32 and MIT’s CTSS. > > E-mail was quickly extended to become network e-mail, allowing users to pass messages between different computers by at least 1966 (it is possible the SAGE system had something similar some time before). > > The ARPANET computer network made a large contribution to the development of e-mail. There is one report that indicates experimental inter-system e-mail transfers on it shortly after its creation in 1969.[16] Ray Tomlinson initiated the use of the @ sign to separate the names of the user and their machine in 1971.[17] The ARPANET significantly increased the popularity of e-mail, and it became the killer app of the ARPANET. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2008, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265/37 "2008-06-19T09:32:34Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] (And of course, Douglas Adams used to post on Usenet using his own email address, unhidden, back in the innocent days of the early 90s…) [/QUOTE] And look what happened to him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-super-famous-people-have-email/453265.md?page=1)