E-mail addresses

ARGH!

I was trying to e-mail a guy — let’s call him Robert Smith at XYZ company. I sent mail to rsmith@xyz.com; it bounced. Ditto for bsmith@xyz.com, robert.smith@xyz.com, and bob.smith@xyz.com.

Turns out he’s rob.smith@xyz.com.

ARGH!

Here’s a tip: Every company should have their “official” e-mail format (e.g., first inital, last name; as in rsmith@xyz.com), but should also set up aliases for every other standard format.

The official one would go on business cards and correspondence, but e-mail to any of the others should also work. So my messages to “rsmith@xyz.com” et al should have gone through.

(Even better: Set up all the standard addresses, but also allow each person to choose their own address — I’d like to be “ak@xyz.com” or “andrew@xyz.com” for example. Users would like that, but people would still be able to reach them using a standard e-mail format.)