• NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
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    6 days ago

    I have this and the other people with my name give it as their own email address all the time, apparently not understanding that you don’t get the address just for existing.

    • Zink@programming.dev
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      6 days ago

      That’s pretty good, for how bad it is.

      I have a pretty old gmail address that’s fmlast@gmail, and several years ago there was a lady with fmlast12@gmail who kept leaving the numbers off. It wasn’t that bad though, and for one or two important things I replied to help.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      it happens to me too, though my format is lastname.firstinitial, so I have more potential for confusion as my last name isn’t super uncommon.

      people just sign up for stuff with it. sometimes banks even.

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Ha ha this happens to me so much. I even had to help a poor dude out because his account (and stuff getting delivered) all was under my email.

      On a side note, I got the firstnamelastname@gmail, but Gmail often proposed the firstname.lastname@gmail in autocomplete, with my image and all, so I just “recovered” it. Now I have both when I’m trying to ditch Google 🤷🏼‍♀️

    • doctordevice@lemmy.ca
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      6 days ago

      Ugh same. My first name is very common, last name moderately uncommon. I’ve gotten loads of stuff. Various quotes and invoices (vet, mechanic, window installation), invitations to child care groups, family gathering invitations (that one I think was the person writing the email address, not the person with my name).

      Most of the time I just immediately unsubscribe or block or whatever and move on, but there’s some (like the child care group) I had to reach out to because that could be potentially dangerous.

      Get your own email right, people! It shouldn’t be my responsibility to manage your email. Some of that shit includes your home address too.

  • lichtmetzger@discuss.tchncs.de
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    7 days ago

    And here I am, with a firstname@lastname.de address, running my own mail server.

    • People sometimes act like this is pure magic
    • Some providers only allow popular mail services on signup (fuck those), so I had to set up a GMail address that just redirects to my actual one
    • My last name is really hard to spell, so it probably wasn’t the best idea, since I always struggle communicating that address verbally

    The pain of running this still beats having to deal with a free provider out there that either spams my inbox with their own BS or just skims through the data to serve me ads.

    • rmuk@feddit.uk
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      6 days ago

      I have a few domain names, including firstnamelastname.co.uk. I mostly use it for spam monitoring; everyone gets a different address, so eBay has ebay@, Microsoft has microsoft@, etc. It’s harder for them to link my identities together and if I suddenly start getting fuckloads of spam I know who leaked/sold my address. Fuck you, LinkedIn and LastFM.

      I also had my own email server until recently (MailInABox on Proxmox), but I was looking for a cloud storage provider so I ended up signing up for Proton and moving my email there.

    • leds@feddit.dk
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      6 days ago

      I have @firstnamelastname.tld since last name was taken (unrelated to me).

      Typically use company@firstnamelastname.tld when giving out my email to keep track of spam so I used airline@firstnamelastname.tld when buying tickets.

      At the check in the person saw my airline@ email and askes: oh do you also work for airline?

    • Rolivers@discuss.tchncs.de
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      7 days ago

      What setup did you use? I’m interested in doing this as well. I’ve already self hosted a NAS with vpn access using an RPI4 with PiVPN. It works quite well.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      7 days ago

      I have just my last name, and get signed up for all kinds of bullshit by people with my last name because they’ll enter firstname<space>lastname@gmail.com when signing up for stupid shit.

    • lichtmetzger@discuss.tchncs.de
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      7 days ago

      There was a mixup with a German teacher in France once and all of her students sent their homework to my email instead of hers. That was fun!

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I have a first name that is of Saxon origin but this name has also developed in Sanskrit independently from the Saxon name and the name is very common in India. One of my email addresses is [firstname]123@gmail.com I often get email directed to some Indian bloke. And it’s always for a different guy. I think these people don’t have an email and just make one up when they signed up for something. I even get someone’s banking communications.

  • rmuk@feddit.uk
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    6 days ago

    I currently have my full name on GMail and Proton, but I actually had my first name on GMail when it first launched. As in, if my name was Brian (it isn’t (it might be (it isn’t))) I had brian@gmail.com. Sold it for £1000.

  • But_my_mom_says_im_cool@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Tbf im the only person on the planet with my name. I think that’s pretty neat.

    For context, I have a made up last name so I know everyone on earth with my family name

    • cobysev@lemmy.world
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      7 days ago

      In my 40+ years alive, I’ve never met anyone with my first name, although I know they exist; a quick Google search shows me at least a handful of people who have it.

      My last name is an Americanized spelling of a Danish pronunciation of a Norwegian farm name. There are very few people who have my exact last name, and every one I’ve ever spoken to has been a descendant of my ancestral family who immigrated to America a century and a half ago.

      Combine the two, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only person on the planet with my specific name. I’ve never had a problem making accounts with my first.last name anywhere.

        • cobysev@lemmy.world
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          7 days ago

          I mean, this is my public username. It takes a very quick Google search to dox me. Most of my name is in my username already.

          • EvilCartyen@feddit.dk
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            7 days ago

            I can’t think of what Norwegian name it’s supposed to be a Danish pronunciation of, tbh. Severin?

            • cobysev@lemmy.world
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              7 days ago

              My family is originally from Sauda in Norway. Norwegian tradition used to be that your family name was the name of your home. If you moved to a new farm, you adopted the name of that farm as your new family name. They don’t do this anymore, as it got really hard to track genealogical records with families changing names all the time.

              When my ancestors immigrated to America, Norway was under Danish rule, as Denmark had conquered Norway at the time and was forcing Danish pronunciation on the Norwegian language. So my family name’s pronunciation of “saw-duh” became “sov-dae.”

              When my ancestors got to America, no one could pronounce my family name correctly, so they changed the spelling to be more phonetic in the English language. And that’s how I got my current family name!

              • EvilCartyen@feddit.dk
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                7 days ago

                Right, yes that was common, being named after the farm. Interesting family story 🙂

                Though, being Danish, I have a national duty to say that Denmark didn’t conquer Norway, it was inherited by a king around 1400 and then developed into a full union in 15-something when the Swedes left the Kalmar Union. It was a dual monarchy, effectively one country, ruled from Copenhagen and standard Danish was no more forced on the Norwegians than it was forced on other Danes speaking a dialect of Danish.

                The union was dissolved in 1814 when Napoleon (who was allied to Denmark), lost his wars and Norway was given to Sweden. After 100 years under Swedish rule, Norway was finally independent.

                It’s been something of a national need in Norway to emphasize all the bad things under the dual monarchy, but in truth Norwegians and Danes were completely equal. Look up any major historical or cultural figure from the era and there’s a good chance he came from what is now Norway, most of the navy was Norwegian and so on. I understand the need to find someone to other so that the national identity grows stronger, but it’s a pity it’s become a narrative of Danish exploitation when that’s completely false.

                I say equal, that goes for the political class and nobility, the peasants in both countries were of course almost completely powerless 😉

                • cobysev@lemmy.world
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                  7 days ago

                  That’s very interesting. I learned the history of my name through living descendants of my ancestors in Norway. (Two brothers immigrated to America, while a third brother stayed behind in Norway) They were the ones who told me Norway was conquered and ruled by Denmark for a while.

                  Perhaps it was a mistranslation between us; I had wondered how Norway was able to preserve their country’s heritage and language while being ruled by their neighbor.

    • SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      I have an uncommon Anglo Saxon first name. (Funny thing is this name is very common in India but the Indian and Saxon version don’t share the same origin) and I have an uncommon French last name. So I have every variation of my full name as a Gmail address.

  • edinbruh@feddit.it
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    6 days ago

    My name is uncommon enough that I can always pick my name everywhere, and when I can’t it means I forgot I had an account.

  • Denvil@lemmy.ml
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    6 days ago

    I got my gmail as my name like a year ago because I just have an uncommon name (Denvil)

  • Mio@feddit.nu
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    6 days ago

    Summer 2005. I have the first letters for my name and middle names and then the full last name dot gmail.com. However, nowadays I use my own domain. Since 2008 i got my own domain dot country code but it was for selfhosting. 4 letters dot country code. Only last three years ago i switch to use it for mail as well. I dont host my inbox, just forwards it.

  • Rose@slrpnk.net
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    7 days ago

    I was there when gmail was invented
    Was there during the invitation period
    Someone picked my preferred name
    I ended up with a kinda dumb name
    Didn’t matter much, because my primary email is a redirect, anyway, and gmail still lets me use those (kudos to them)
    Google came up with Google Code (and other services) where your public gmail address is your identity
    Nope, fuck off
    Glad they died. Shame Github got eaten by Microsoft, but, eh…
    Google hasn’t really been good at letting people specify their identity, ever since
    Yes, this is also a transgender user story, why do you ask?