Inbox (4259)

While I am fully aware there are roughly a few people waiting for me to actually reply to my e-mails, I thought I would finally get around to have look at my e-mails …, my former Ellisfamily.TK e-mails of course.

Just like addresses and phone numbers, e-mail addresses is now often used as the core of people’s communications (some may debate social networks is now the most used online communication for personal usage but same applies) and just like addresses and phone numbers that once you change them there is always someone who will never use the new one or just don’t know about them. In this case, there is 4259 different people, companies or whatever that is not using my new address (likely because I never given it to them).

It is so easy to lose contact with people just because someone changes their e-mail or something happens to it. If I was to take a tally right now, how many people knows I can also be contacted at the same e-mail address but using snat.co.il instead of snat.co.uk ?

The answer will be not many. Not many people will actually be able to contact me if my e-mail goes down. Sure some people may know about my snat.co.il e-mail, sure some people will know about my hidden Facebook account (yes, I have a hidden Facebook account so shut up about it) but most people will be completely clueless.

Think honestly for just a few minutes about all the people you contact often. Imagine if you could no longer e-mail them, could you actually contact them again. While social networks has made this more easy over the past few years, I would bet you that most people who loses their e-mail address will make a new one, make a new social networking account and ignore their old one. If you do not believe me, I have seen this myself on Facebook when someone loses their phone that they go ahead and make a new account because they think they can’t use their old one still.

Now think, what would you do if you lost access to your e-mails. I would bet you would actually first starting worrying about if anyone e-mailed you, how you are going to contact people and things like that. Then you likely will use a social network or an IM client and contact everyone going;

“LOAZL MY DA E-MAIlZ STOPPED WRKING. NEW E-MAIL IS [email protected]”

Little does it seem that people will think that there many just be a problem with their e-mail provider. People also seems to think if their e-mails are down that for some reason they can no longer log into the social networking site or any other websites that uses their e-mail address as a username.

It is this very reason why I run my e-mails on a personal domain of mine (in this case, snat.co.uk) as if something happens I could easily just change my e-mail provider by changing a couple of MX records and my e-mails are back. What I think has happened is the larger free providers like Hotmail, Gmail etc has made it so much more easy for people to make e-mail accounts that they also made it far more easy to ignore those accounts when they no longer work or something happens to them.

Just think for a few minutes. Do you have any other form of contact if something happens to your e-mail and if not, why not. You may not think it is important but you never know when you get that one urgent e-mail and that person can not contact you.

Until next time.

* Although from experience, all urgent e-mails sent to me are just a pile of bullshit being sent from the person in the hope I would talk to them all day.