I don't know what e-mail YOU are using...

[MystyGlyttyr]

Just took this call from a...male...just now. I was actually replying to another thread but emptied the box to take notes as the call happened so I could copy and paste it back over here, heh heh.

For the record, EVERY e-mail address we have here is in the format of "name@nameofthepaper.com". Our name of the paper has 16 letters in it. So, my email address, for example, would have 25 characters in it. And it works. It works great, actually. So, I dunno, maybe there are e-mail programs that are like what dude is describing, but...whatev.


Me: "Newsroom."
SC: "Can I get the e-mail address for the *paper*?"
Me: "What were you needing to send?"
SC: "Pardon?"
Me: "What were you needing to send?"
SC: *grumpy* "I still didn't get that!"
Me: *yelling politely* "WHAT DID YOU NEED TO SEND?"
SC: "I need the e-mail address for the *paper*."
Me: *sigh* "WERE YOU NEEDING TO SEND IN A STORY?"
SC: "No, I was needing to send in a complaint."
Me: "Okay, you'll need to send it to *address@nameofpaper.com*."
SC: "You can only put 16 characters in an e-mail address!"
Me: "Um, well, that's the e-mail address..."
SC: "But you can only put 16 characters in an e-mail address!"
Me: "...well, that's our e-mail address, and it...works..."
SC: "But it won't fit!"
Me: "Um, I'm sorry, sir, but that's the address and it works just fine."
SC: *long irritated silence*
Me: *takes a moment to get a bite of cookie and sip some Dr Pepper...hey, I can wait, too*
SC: "Well, then just give me your letter to the editor address and I'll send an e-mail to the editor!"
Me: "That's what...I just gave you. The completely working e-mail address for letters to the editor."
SC: "But it WON'T FIT! You CAN'T HAVE more than 16 characters in an address!"
Me: "Well, it works for us and everyone else who's used it."
SC: Get me your supervisor.
Me: *looks at editor, who is shaking her head and mouthing foul language at me...which means at this point that she has ceded control to me, so all bets are off* "I'm sorry, there are none available at this time. Would you like to leave a message and see if they get back to you?"
SC: "...NO. Just give me your physical address and I'll just mail a letter!"
Me: *gives address*
SC: *goes on five-minute rant about how horrible we are for not having a real e-mail address and how much we suck and how he'll tell everyone*
Me: "All right, sir, we'll be looking for your letter! I'm sure we'll enjoy it!" *hangs up*

Oy. I would've explained to him that perhaps different e-mail clients had different restrictions, but our address would still work fine...but once you're a total cranky butt with me, forget it. You'll be lucky if I don't transfer you to the Janitor's Closet of On-Hold Hell.

[MrSunshineState]

SC: Get me your supervisor.

I have a personal policy. When some SC gives me a 'direct order' like that, they DO NOT get what they want. Period!

Of course I am a Team Lead now (promoted December 2006 WOOT!), but when I was on the phones, the only way people would get the call past me and up the chain is if they ASKED me. "May I speak to a supervisor?" is all they need to say. "Get me your supervisor." will never work!

[Reyneth]

His head would have exploded at my college's email system. When I started, your email address was your first initial, last initial, 4 random digits, the last two digits of the year you enrolled plus the school email's identifier.

ej395297@oak.cats.stateu.edu (with a few things changed, but same length) you could *never* fit that puppy onto any forms - even the ones from the school!

[Pinkie]

Maybe he was typing in "addressATnameofpaper.com" and didn't think to use "@" instead.......or adding spaces where no spaces are needed. Seems like something a SC would do.

[Dips]

That is so funny. Maybe his ISP restricts the number of characters in users' IDs and he thinks that applies to all the addresses you send to as well.

Or...

The "To:" box isn't very big and he thinks the first characters he typed get deleted when they scroll to the left and out of sight.

"All right, sir, we'll be looking for your letter! I'm sure we'll enjoy it!" *hangs up*

Snerk. Did you hang up too fast to actually hear the "whoosh" when that went over his head?

[MadMike]

I'd love to know where he got that particular piece of misinformation from. Every single address I've ever had is more than 16 characters. Hell, even my first one from mid 1995, before the internet really started to take off, was more than that.

[Bliss]

If he calls back and you want to slap him around a little tell him that RFC821 specifies in section 4.5.3 that local users can be up to 64 characters, and domains up to 64, so a full address with the @ sign can be up to 129 characters long. And I'd end up telling him that he better get a standards compliant client instead of a broken one because a broken client like his could lead to undelivered mail.

Edit: BTW that is the first rfc for smtp. It is pretty possible latter extensions made the address longer (never smaller.) but I'm not going to look each one up one by one for a moron (him) and 129 characters is more than enough to slap him back

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

SC: *goes on five-minute rant about how horrible we are for not having a real e-mail address and how much we suck and how he'll tell everyone*
Me: "All right, sir, we'll be looking for your letter! I'm sure we'll enjoy it!" *hangs up*

Oy. I would've explained to him that perhaps different e-mail clients had different restrictions, but our address would still work fine...but once you're a total cranky butt with me, forget it. You'll be lucky if I don't transfer you to the Janitor's Closet of On-Hold Hell.

He would have to be using a VERY old program for that. My first e-mail address ever was mongo.skruddgemire @ ezy.net (no longer active) and that was back in 1990 (yes I've been using Mongo Skruddgemire for 17 years now). So if a 17 year old e-mail client didn't have a problem with...lets see...25 characters, then I doubt anything within the last 5 years would have had any problems.

But then again the guy was being a real smurfbag and as such doesn't deserve any kind of explaination.

M

[Seshat]

Edit: BTW that is the first rfc for smtp. It is pretty possible latter extensions made the address longer (never smaller.) but I'm not going to look each one up one by one for a moron (him) and 129 characters is more than enough to slap him back

821 is current, thought it does have extensions.


It replaces RFC 788 (which was also SMTP), which replaced 780 which replaced 772 (both of which were MTP).

I didn't find anything specifying the size of the email address in 772 when I looked, only that it had to be a valid username at a valid hostname. The validity of the username would have been determined by the operating system of the host, and the hostname would have been determined by the relevant RFC...

.... wow. It looks like back then, it was rather confused. Different RFCs for different network naming conventions.



Someone ought to write a book.