# Who has the oldest e-mail address among the Dope?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 11, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465 "2012-04-11T15:06:43Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/1 "2012-04-11T15:06:43Z")
Something in ATMB got me thinking which is always a dangerous thing. I have a friend who just changed e-mail services for the third time this year and here I sit with the same two basic accounts since 1996. In my life I have had maybe a total of 6 accounts; 4 have gone inactive or been closed.
What’s your oldest active account? Roughly how many have you had since getting on the internet?
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/2 "2012-04-11T15:08:28Z")
My oldest is from 1998. Prior to that, I think I had an AOL account in about 1992 and perhaps one or two others.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/3 "2012-04-11T15:10:03Z")
I’ve had any number of Hotmail, Yahoo and Gmail accounts, but the one I actually use is from my ISP and I’ve had it since I moved out of my parents’ house in 1997.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/4 "2012-04-11T15:11:32Z")
My oldest ever was in 1991 when I went to college. I had one AOL account in 1995 which I then dropped and went back on in 1996 and have had ever since. I also have another AOL screen name with my real name. Those are the only ones I consider having been my main accounts. So basically 4 over the past 21 years. My Dope address has been valid since 1996.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/5 "2012-04-11T15:12:57Z")
My basic one is from Netzero, which Wiki says launched in 1998. I would’ve swore my addy was older.
I do have a yahoo e-mail that I got very early, but only use for Fantasy Football. Wiki says Yahoo launched in 1994, went public in 1995, which matches when I first got into FF.
I had an Applelink account way back when (88? 89?), but I don’t remember how it worked.
I signed on with AOL very early (92? 93?), but that acct is long dead.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/6 "2012-04-11T15:18:37Z")
I have Hotmail and Gmail accts, too, for my business stuff. I had Juno, Compuserve, maybe something else too, but my Netzero acct is my most used oldest.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/7 "2012-04-11T15:19:29Z")
I just checked my oldest semi-active account (Yahoo - I say semi-active as I still use it to sign up for things but it has almost 22,000 unread mails and I abandoned it long ago). Apparently I signed up on July 26, 1999. Not as long ago as I thought, but long enough that my address is just [firstnamelastname@yahoo.com](mailto:firstnamelastname@yahoo.com).
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/8 "2012-04-11T15:31:13Z")
My main email address is _lastname_@yahoo.com that I set up in 1994 or 1995.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/9 "2012-04-11T15:32:14Z")
Mine is in reference to a piece of computer equipment that I can (easily, without trying to hard) trace back to at least 1996. I’m sure it goes back a bit farther then that even. I’m guessing it’s at least as old as the SDMB, in any form.
Also, I assume we’re only counting active email address. That’s my oldest active one. As in, I use it on a daily basis.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/10 "2012-04-11T15:33:07Z")
I have a still-active Hotmail account from 1996. I’ve had to resurrect it several times and it has like 7,000 pieces of spam in the inbox, but it’s mine.
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### Author:  [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/11 "2012-04-11T15:43:34Z")
My basic home email address is one I’ve had since 1995.
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/12 "2012-04-11T15:49:33Z")
Oh and I’ve probably had about 40 addresses since, both work and the latest webmail fad. Hotmail was my second one. Stuck with gmail since '04 though. Got out of the ISP = email trap early, something my sister and her husband still haven’t managed - they change email every time they change provider, which is a PitA.
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### Author:  [@sachertorte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sachertorte)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/13 "2012-04-11T15:54:41Z")
I can still receive mail from my email address from 1992 (college), but I can no longer send mail from it.
My email address from 1996 is currently active and receives regular use. My circa 1994 hotmail account is still alive, but I only use it for when I have to signup for something minor and I don’t want to deal with the spam or give out my main address.
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### Author:  [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/14 "2012-04-11T16:43:45Z")
I still use my @kent.edu email address from college from 1997. It’s my main non-work address.
I forget what I was using before then. I know I didn’t come up with ZipperJJ until after college started and all my webmail addresses are that.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/15 "2012-04-11T16:51:28Z")
I have no idea how old my yahoo address is. Is there someplace in my account information where I can find out? I know it predates my joining up here.
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### Author:  [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/16 "2012-04-11T16:56:45Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#):
>
> I have no idea how old my yahoo address is. Is there someplace in my account information where I can find out? I know it predates my joining up here.
I just searched for “welcome to yahoo” and went to the last page of the results. There was the original welcome email I got when I signed up. I assume, in my case, just going to the last page of my inbox would have worked too…
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### Author:  [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/17 "2012-04-11T17:06:12Z")
I love these questions.
My oldest address, which my wife uses now, is with AT&T which we got somewhere around 1993. I was working for AT&T so I signed up right away, and we got our not very uncommon last name with no numbers or other stuff.
As for other stuff, I don’t remember if I had a Multics email address when I was at MIT - if I did it would be 1969. I definitely had a PLATO email address which was 1974. And I’ve had plenty before domain addressing, when you had to email giving an explicit path to the destination machine.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/18 "2012-04-11T17:07:12Z")
> [@Colophon](#):
>
> I just searched for “welcome to yahoo” and went to the last page of the results. There was the original welcome email I got when I signed up. I assume, in my case, just going to the last page of my inbox would have worked too…
Nice idea but I don’t keep any email that old.
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### Author:  [@Barking\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barking_Dog)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/19 "2012-04-11T17:13:37Z")
My one and only email account I think I started in 94, or possibly 95, with yahoo.
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### Author:  [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-has-the-oldest-e-mail-address-among-the-dope/618465/20 "2012-04-11T17:17:25Z")
My primary e-mail is from 1994.
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