I’ve had the same email since the beginning of the internet. I don’t know how recognizably ancient it is (not aol.com). It still works fine, gets the job done etc. I recently overheard a conversation about looking down on people with non gmail email.
I dread having to move all my contacts, and fear missed emails from people who will get my “changing my email” email and mean to change it and not get around to it.
How much do you judge people for unhip old email providers?
I make assumptions about them but I don’t view people negatively unless the actual name is extremely informal or sexual.
My main email is an aol.com one, but I’ve had it for nearly 20 years and I’m not going to change it. I do not use the downloadable AOL portal to access my email, though, I do it through a browser as the Internet Gods intended. When I explain that part to people who taunt me, they usually back down. I also have a gmail and yahoo mail account, but for different things.
As long as it works for you, I don’t see any point changing it. I interview people for tech positions and I have never heard anyone who matters say that your email address would factor into a hiring decision. If your email account was something like “BunnyFooFoo@yahoo.com” you might get a raised eyebrow, but an account that was your real name isn’t going to have any impact.
I still use my yahoo account for everything, and I’ve never had anyone say a word about it.
It works for you and gets the job done, no? So what’s the problem? Disapproval from the kind of… let’s be generous and say ‘jackasses’ who judge a person based on their email provider is something to take pride in. And Gmail? Do you really want an internet that’s as heavily monopolized as the one they’re pushing? If so, do you want that monopoly to be a company that tracks your searches, bubbles your results, scans your emails to deliver targeted ads (many do this now, but they were the innovator (and think what it means in terms of business and privacy)), supports the DRM schemes of HTML 5, and on top of that, can’t even spell its own name correctly? Stick with what you’ve got- but learn what the company does.
Nitpicky historian note: if you have to specify '“it’s not aol”, it’s not from the beginning of the internet.
gmail is way, way overrated. Confusing and messy, lots of good features but not easy to figure out at all.
I like outlook.com for a contemporary, feature-full browser email that’s also extremely intuitive to use.
I have a few email accts, all with different providers. the Gmail one is the one I like the least but I use it professionally as I was able to get my IRL name there.
Most of the emails that I receive show the person’s/business’s alias name not the actual address in my inbox, so I see “carlotta” instead of “LittleRabbitFooFoo@provider.com”. Yes, I can find LittleRabbitFooFoo@provider.com easily enough, but it is a step to look for it. I wouldn’t sweat it.
@hotmail, huh?
I can’t imagine judging people by their email addresses ( apart from those using gmail, of course ).
As for missing emails, you can avoid this — and avoid informing people of the change — by having your new address pick up your old mail into the new account.
Here’s an article by mail.com on forwarding.
I currently use mail.com amongst others, but am planning to get a runbox email solely for important stuff when I can afford it.
Well, he has a ‘friend’ who uses @hotmail.
Windows Live emails are still available as @hotmail.com, if that really is the one you are talking about. So it would mean nothing. Yahoo would be worse, really.
If it’s not AOL, I doubt anyone cares too much. Either it’s old enough people won’t recognize it, or it’s one of the current major players.
Probably compuserve… which gives it’s own street cred, in a way
Regards,
-Bouncer-
I still use my aol email.
It has my real initials.
I am proud, we were pioneers, I remember dial up!
Why would people look down on us?
Seriously, I’m curious.
By the way, I live in the UK, got on aol there.
My main address is also of the hottingmail variety (of 17 years standing). I also have a gmail, a yahoo, a couple from my website, and a bunch of other special use ones.
But the excited arm waving that people do expounding the virtues of one over the other gets a bemused look from me - they all just appear in TBird identically.
Just prominently post your new email address in multiple locations on your geocities page, linked to MySpace.
Only if it still has bangs in it.
I have a different assessment of emails: personal, I don’t care what provider it is but I do roll my eyes quite vigorously at “BunnyFooFoo@” type user names… and even more at “AllTheJoneses@” ‘family’ or ‘couple’ addresses. I recently had a Real Guy correspondence using what was obviously the wife’s email account… sheesh.
For business, I have many levels of negative response to people who have a business domain, but use “JoesPlumbingCT@Yahoo .com” or worse, an obviously personal or bunny-foo-foo address, even on business cards and the like. It’s a poor marketing and image option even for a one-man business, and looks extremely unprofessional and ‘temporary’ to me. (It is SO easy to set up a simple forwarder from a domain, if the owner/user really doesn’t want to muck with multiple accounts.)
I concur. In this day and age you can set up a domain name and get the email@domain without even making a webpage. If you can’t do that I seriously question your professionalism.
I actually worked at a tech firm in the mid-90s and would have to “bang an email” to people!
This seems backwards to me. I’ve always thought of gmail addresses as almost “pretend” email. About ten years ago I went round and round with Ebay because I was moving and wanted to temporarily shift my account to my gmail, as my “legit” email address was going to go away and I expected it to be at least a few months recovering from moving expenses before getting new internet service.
Ebay wouldn’t let me use a gmail address unless I gave them credit card information, saying that my email had to be linked to a verifiable person, such as through your ISP or work. When the page asking for CC info came up, I actually reported it to their fraud department, because their TOS clearly said that they would never ask for credit card info and any requests that appeared to be from them were fraud and should be reported.
Their customer service just repeatedly told me I couldn’t use a gmail account without a credit card, and wouldn’t even acknowledge that their own TOS said not to send CC info to anyone claiming to be ebay. I decided just to do without Ebay.
I have to admit that people judging others for their e-mail domain seems weird to me, but if it’s an actual problem, why don’t you just get a second email address? You can have more than one, and any decent e-mail program will let you use multiple addresses with ease.
As the non-professional Barbarian said, on personal emails it’s not so much what appears after the “@” sign as what appears prior to it. I’m sure many will consider me an asshole, but, when I hired people, resumes submitted by “Dave.Smith60601@gmail.com” would get a read while “Jonzin420@gmail.com” would get deleted unread. And, before anybody asks, yes, hiring managers do get emails from people who put drug references, sex references ala “CuteChik69@aol.com” and other odd shit in their email address.
Also, for business emails, yeah, the “@gmail.com’s”, “@aol.com’s” of the world just don’t make it anymore, especially if we’re talking about large $$ amounts. Sorry “Dave.Smith60601@gmail.com”, but I’m not purchasing $5,000 of stuff from you with an email like that… but I will call you up to schedule an interview.