I have firstname@lastname.countrycode and occasionally I get people that it breaks their brain that it's not @gmail or something and they insist its wrong or won't work.
It's even worse when some idiot dev decides what an email should look like and doesn't properly implement RFC822 (or whichever one specifies all the random bits of a valid email address).
The current recommendation is to check for an @ symbol. It's pretty much the only concrete rule.
If an email address has to exist, the only way is to send it an email and have the user click a link.
I was too late for that, unfortunately and got . which also some people don't comprehend.
Although it's the capitol and there are sites from public services which use that TLD as well.
What genuinely pisses me off: Prior to that I got .name, and there are sites, which refuse to accept it as a valid TLD when I try to register with them.
Edit: I got <lastname[with umlauts]>., tho as this was available, but those don't work that well. Or didn't, when I last checked.
I have a complicated surname, so when people ask for my email I just show them my ID and say "firstname@lastname.de" and they can type it in, reading it off the card.
It's made my life so easy!
I also kept all of my spam mails of the last twenty years and trained rspamd with it. It's got a 99.9% success rate. I'd even argue it works better than some corporate mail providers (what also helps is that I provide the mail service for friends & family as well and we are all collectively training the database).
It was a pain to setup initially, but I don't want to miss it.
I've been thinking about registrating my own domain ( again) but I can't settle or lack imagination for an easy recognisable name format for us. Anyone ideas?
Also there's a connection to selfhosted here, but I need to delve a bit deeper maybe.
I made mine firstname@lastname.me but I also have it set up with proton Mail as a catchall email address so I can give out literallyanything@lastname.me and it all goes to the same inbox with the ability to filter and send some addresses strait to trash.
I used to do that, but it caught far too much spam sent to random usernames on every domain. Now I have a fixed prefix and do prefix+literallyanything@lastname.me, which gives the same benefits with less spam.
I'll check that out but I like to do things like amazon@lastname.me for each service and when I get spam to that same address I know who sold my email address. Not that I really do anything about it but send that address to spam but I like to know.
It is like a tattoo: Do not think too much about the first or third tattoo/domain. the tenth will give you an feeling and the 15th you feel completed. Just start with one and as soon as you have control over your first digital cert endpoint, you can forward easy from it to any other domain in you control and depricating out unwanted domains over years without problems. It is a road not the destination to choosen your first domain. Hit the Road Riddick and don't you come back no more.
five random letters. short enough to be easily memorizable & easily communicated by voice. no homophones, even in other languages. no one going to try to buy the domain out from under you. You could try four random letters, but that runs more risk of colliding with acronyms.
Leaving this link here might get me a lot of downvotes, but I for one am not going to set up my own domain for personal mail and am happy using Proton. They offer a tool for gmail users: https://proton.me/blog/proton-mail-connect-gmail
The benefit is that you can keep the same email if/when a provider enshittifies, including proton.
Custom domains are a lot like open sourcing in software; helps keep the SaaS honest. If most customers use a custom domain, the service provider would act based on the knowledge that they could lose most customers easily.
You can use a domain with proton mail. And when proton turns into garbage someday, you register your domain with a different mail provider. That way you get to keep your mail address.
Last time I looked at it the service I wanted to use to register a domain asked for my full legal name and address for the process. This would have then shown up in some publicly available repository of registered domains, at least that's how I understood it.
It this something all registrars have to do or did I get this wrong?
Ok, you confuse me a bit by throwing SSL into this comment but your first part got me to look at a registrar mentioned in other comments and I see what you mean.
I had the exact same question and found this overview from hostinger and decided to go with porkbun because renewal is cheap and the website's search works with only porkbun's javascript (in contrast to spaceship which was the cheapest but even loaded some js from bing
This actually took me quite a while. Now that you mention it, I maybe should have used AI. LoL changed my mind again. Because who trusts the output of AI and its hallucinations.
I recommend Porkbun. I used to prefer Name. Com but they jacked prices too high, same with Doteasy. Admin UX at Porkbun also good, and a super wide variety of TLDs.
It actually very easy - majority of email providers have a email transfer service; and if thats not your cup of tea then you can manually export and import them.
@CAVOK
I've had several of my own @_URLs since I first connected to the Internet & currently run them through Thunderbird. And there is an extension on TB for exporting emails (in readable .eml format) called "ImportExportTools NG" that I run every month so I can clean up my (busy) mailbox regularly but still archive/have access to years of mail.
(I also send TB the odd donation once in a while for the service.)
For URL hosting I suggest OVH, Infomaniak (France & Switz) but Proton email too.
Only if you also host it yourself. I connected my domain to proton and it works great. Best part is though that you can switch the host whenever and nobody is even gonna notice. Your address will stay the same and you can even migrate over your mailbox to new providers.
I'm still being lazy about actually making the jump myself but I'd probably go with proton. They're not perfect and already showing signs they might enshittify in the future but for now it's still miles ahead of giving all the data to the Americans. In September when I'm back from holidays...
I've used round cube about 7 years ago, but it was a very poor experience in comparison with gmail back then. Gmail hasn't really changed anything since, except that it got less reliable, I can only hope that there now are better open source web mail clients; there can't be worse
65 Comments
lichtmetzger@discuss.tchncs.de · 54 pts · 1d
I got [surname].de over twenty years ago and I am so happy about that. Google can gargle my balls, I run postfix, rspamd, dovecot and roundcube.
mofongo@discuss.tchncs.de · 13 pts · 18h
I did too. I feel smug when I'm asked for my email.
normonator@lemmy.ml · 18 pts · 15h
I have firstname@lastname.countrycode and occasionally I get people that it breaks their brain that it's not @gmail or something and they insist its wrong or won't work.
Funny but also mildy annoying at times.
towerful@programming.dev · 2 pts · 6h
It's even worse when some idiot dev decides what an email should look like and doesn't properly implement RFC822 (or whichever one specifies all the random bits of a valid email address).
The current recommendation is to check for an
@symbol. It's pretty much the only concrete rule.If an email address has to exist, the only way is to send it an email and have the user click a link.
https://beesbuzz.biz/code/439-Falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-email
nibbs@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 8h
I was too late for that, unfortunately and got . which also some people don't comprehend.
Although it's the capitol and there are sites from public services which use that TLD as well.
What genuinely pisses me off: Prior to that I got .name, and there are sites, which refuse to accept it as a valid TLD when I try to register with them.
Edit: I got <lastname[with umlauts]>., tho as this was available, but those don't work that well. Or didn't, when I last checked.
lichtmetzger@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 15h
I have a complicated surname, so when people ask for my email I just show them my ID and say "firstname@lastname.de" and they can type it in, reading it off the card.
It's made my life so easy!
I also kept all of my spam mails of the last twenty years and trained rspamd with it. It's got a 99.9% success rate. I'd even argue it works better than some corporate mail providers (what also helps is that I provide the mail service for friends & family as well and we are all collectively training the database).
It was a pain to setup initially, but I don't want to miss it.
purplemonkeymad@programming.dev · 1 pts · 1h
I too have had noone ever say anything about the fact I have a surname domain when I am telling them my email.
HowRu68@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 1d
I've been thinking about registrating my own domain ( again) but I can't settle or lack imagination for an easy recognisable name format for us. Anyone ideas?
Also there's a connection to selfhosted here, but I need to delve a bit deeper maybe.
otacon239@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 1d
Sorry, buttplug.io is already taken so I don’t have any more ideas.
mushroommunk@lemmy.today · 19 pts · 1d
buttplug42069.xxx however is wide open
IAmYouButYouDontKnowYet@reddthat.com · 2 pts · 1d
Turn goetzi into a search engine!
idiomaddict@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 22h
Goetzi’s the fossilized goatse meme they found in the alps, right?
powdermilkman@piefed.social · 9 pts · 1d
I made mine firstname@lastname.me but I also have it set up with proton Mail as a catchall email address so I can give out literallyanything@lastname.me and it all goes to the same inbox with the ability to filter and send some addresses strait to trash.
bus_factor@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 1d
I used to do that, but it caught far too much spam sent to random usernames on every domain. Now I have a fixed prefix and do prefix+literallyanything@lastname.me, which gives the same benefits with less spam.
powdermilkman@piefed.social · 3 pts · 23h
Maybe I'm just lucky, I don't get spam like that... Yet. I've had that setup for a few years now though.
Pruning9165@feddit.org · 1 pts · 6h
On all my domains I always get spam at info@domain because the lazy marketers just scrape a list of domains and assume most of them has info@
It's actually a honeypot that will add the sender to a blocklist
tomatolung@sopuli.xyz · 1 pts · 23h
You don't use the simplelogin (now part of proton pass) random or custom address generation? You can use your own custom domain with it.
I've been doing this with nearly every new account as it's normally email or phone which third party data sharing is keyed off of.
powdermilkman@piefed.social · 4 pts · 23h
I'll check that out but I like to do things like amazon@lastname.me for each service and when I get spam to that same address I know who sold my email address. Not that I really do anything about it but send that address to spam but I like to know.
Gloria@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 1d
It is like a tattoo: Do not think too much about the first or third tattoo/domain. the tenth will give you an feeling and the 15th you feel completed. Just start with one and as soon as you have control over your first digital cert endpoint, you can forward easy from it to any other domain in you control and depricating out unwanted domains over years without problems. It is a road not the destination to choosen your first domain. Hit the Road Riddick and don't you come back no more.
arschflugkoerper@feddit.org · 1 pts · 8h
Can confirm, I have 4 domains. Help
Pruning9165@feddit.org · 1 pts · 6h
My registrar told me that I could have a 5% permanent discount if I registered, transferred or renewed 80 domains.
I now have so many unused domains for that ideas that I will never have the time to implement
123@feddit.org · 4 pts · 1d
The first one I registred back then was uncreative yet convenient: My full legal name. I like to advise almost anyone to do so.
For all the places where you do not need or want to reveal your identity you can use something harmless website3001 (or just any random number)
pimat@feddit.org · 3 pts · 1d
For me it was just numbers .xyz and I am happy with that. Date of birth if you use it for private stuff and its $1 a month at namecheap.com.
Pruning9165@feddit.org · 2 pts · 6h
Unfortunately many spammers use .xyz because it's cheap and the nic abuse doesn't do anything about that (even maybe it is complicit)
The result is that many mail servers block .xyz altogether
0x0@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 10h
In roman numerals
tburkhol@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
five random letters. short enough to be easily memorizable & easily communicated by voice. no homophones, even in other languages. no one going to try to buy the domain out from under you. You could try four random letters, but that runs more risk of colliding with acronyms.
asap@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 19h
______mail.com, just come up with something available to fill the blank.
Then, use unique addresses for all services you sign up for, and they look like individual accounts created at some mail service.
You can even make a boilerplate static site at the domain to look like a genuine mail service.
vane@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1d
surfhosted.com
huppakee@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 21h
Leaving this link here might get me a lot of downvotes, but I for one am not going to set up my own domain for personal mail and am happy using Proton. They offer a tool for gmail users: https://proton.me/blog/proton-mail-connect-gmail
WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 20h
The benefit is that you can keep the same email if/when a provider enshittifies, including proton.
Custom domains are a lot like open sourcing in software; helps keep the SaaS honest. If most customers use a custom domain, the service provider would act based on the knowledge that they could lose most customers easily.
Ibuthyr@feddit.org · 14 pts · 15h
You can use a domain with proton mail. And when proton turns into garbage someday, you register your domain with a different mail provider. That way you get to keep your mail address.
TheJesusaurus@piefed.ca · 10 pts · 1d
Thanks!
gedfromgont@piefed.ca · 7 pts · 13h
Last time I looked at it the service I wanted to use to register a domain asked for my full legal name and address for the process. This would have then shown up in some publicly available repository of registered domains, at least that's how I understood it.
It this something all registrars have to do or did I get this wrong?
SmoothOperator@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 9h
Many places you can get WHOIS privacy for free, like Hover.
khannie@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 12h
It used to be the default and you could pay for privacy. I think it's free these days.
FYI, Mozilla do free SSL certificates (for HTTPS) these days which used to be quite expensive.
https://letsencrypt.org/
gedfromgont@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 12h
Ok, you confuse me a bit by throwing SSL into this comment but your first part got me to look at a registrar mentioned in other comments and I see what you mean.
Info found here https://kb.porkbun.com/article/97-how-to-configure-whois-privacy-service-porkbun
alcea@feddit.org · 1 pts · 11h
Was a pain to automate for my VPS, but alas better than nothing
bigboismith@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 12h
.eu domains hide it by default, like here: https://www.whois.com/whois/hakkerman.eu
pantherina@feddit.org · 5 pts · 19h
Okay? Or just setup forwarding
This is a neat trick but also very unprivate as your mail will be unique and a huge barrier (monetary)
tardigrade@scribe.disroot.org · 5 pts · 15h
What is huge? The costs for a domain are next to nothing.
JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl · 4 pts · 12h
Sadly posteo doesn't do custom domains, otherwise they would be a near-perfect provider...
alcea@feddit.org · 0 pts · 11h
imo they are perfect as is
Dequei@piefed.social · 4 pts · 1d
Where do you recommend to buy a domain?
onipa@feddit.org · 8 pts · 23h
I had the exact same question and found this overview from hostinger and decided to go with porkbun because renewal is cheap and the website's search works with only porkbun's javascript (in contrast to spaceship which was the cheapest but even loaded some js from bing
edit: according to forbes porkbun has more TLDs than spaceship
Dequei@piefed.social · 1 pts · 22h
But porkbun is not european, right?
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it · 2 pts · 12h
They are from USA
onipa@feddit.org · 2 pts · 10h
here we go:
domain renewal prices for
.comon different european registrars taken from europena-alternatives.eu:Dequei@piefed.social · 0 pts · 4h
Thanks for the info, but please, don't use AI
onipa@feddit.org · 1 pts · 1h
This actually took me quite a while. Now that you mention it, I maybe should have used AI. LoL changed my mind again. Because who trusts the output of AI and its hallucinations.
0x0@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 10h
Joker (🇩🇪) has a wide variety.
Just make sure the first year promo price and renewal price are appealing.
Dequei@piefed.social · 1 pts · 4h
Thanks
Tiger@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 21h
I recommend Porkbun. I used to prefer Name. Com but they jacked prices too high, same with Doteasy. Admin UX at Porkbun also good, and a super wide variety of TLDs.
Dequei@piefed.social · 1 pts · 21h
CAVOK@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 23h
Main issue for me is my current mails. How easy/hard is it to move everything i already have over to the new provider.
cosmos8188@leminal.space · 7 pts · 22h
It actually very easy - majority of email providers have a email transfer service; and if thats not your cup of tea then you can manually export and import them.
Aqarius@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 22h
Even if not - imapsync works universally, more ir less.
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it · 2 pts · 12h
And if it doesn't work it's a huge red flag IMHO
Quantillion@mstdn.io · 2 pts · 10h
@CAVOK
I've had several of my own @_URLs since I first connected to the Internet & currently run them through Thunderbird. And there is an extension on TB for exporting emails (in readable .eml format) called "ImportExportTools NG" that I run every month so I can clean up my (busy) mailbox regularly but still archive/have access to years of mail.
(I also send TB the odd donation once in a while for the service.)
For URL hosting I suggest OVH, Infomaniak (France & Switz) but Proton email too.
Pruning9165@feddit.org · 1 pts · 6h
You setup both addresses in thunderbird, then simply drag and drop all the emails from one side to the other
imsure@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 23h
I thought about it, but doesn't it have it's own disadvantages? Like higher chances of your letters end up in spam?
Pechente@feddit.org · 11 pts · 23h
Only if you also host it yourself. I connected my domain to proton and it works great. Best part is though that you can switch the host whenever and nobody is even gonna notice. Your address will stay the same and you can even migrate over your mailbox to new providers.
HairyHarry@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1d
I'm praying this since for more than 20 years.
Pruning9165@feddit.org · 2 pts · 6h
I'm addicted to the Gmail webmail, does anyone know a webmail that can be similar?
Maybe roundcube with a mess of hundreds of plugins?
Crossbox is nice but the price is unaffordable (pricing designed for a hosting with thousands of users)
Obi@sopuli.xyz · 2 pts · 3h
I'm still being lazy about actually making the jump myself but I'd probably go with proton. They're not perfect and already showing signs they might enshittify in the future but for now it's still miles ahead of giving all the data to the Americans. In September when I'm back from holidays...
phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 3h
I've used round cube about 7 years ago, but it was a very poor experience in comparison with gmail back then. Gmail hasn't really changed anything since, except that it got less reliable, I can only hope that there now are better open source web mail clients; there can't be worse