MetaChat - Oh, thanks, GMail...

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13 October 2006

Oh, thanks, GMail... "Gmail doesn't recognize dots (.) as characters within a username." But Google DOES allow you to CREATE usernames with dots. So I'm receiving shaneguy's emails at my shane.guy address. Is he receiving mine? &%$#!

post by: shane at: 14:59 | 18 comments

I have a FirstName.LastName@gmail address; just sent a test message to FirstNameLastName@gmail. Let's see what happens.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 13 October | 15:28

So far, nothing- no bounce back and no test mail received. I have an uncommon last name, so I really doubt there's another me.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 13 October | 15:31

I sent one to shaneguy and received it at shane.guy. Hmm. Should I sign in as shaneguy and send an e-mail to shane.guy and see if I get that?

Aaaaugh.

posted by shane 13 October | 15:33

It seems like they're saying that shaneguy and shane.guy are the same address, so there shouldn't be two seperate accounts. But you're indicating that there are two seperate accounts. Weird.

posted by black bile 13 October | 15:41

I thought this was a feature not a bug?

He should be you. By creating shane.guy@gmail.com, you should also be creating shaneguy@gmail.com.

You can also add extra text to someone's email address. For example if I wanted to be able to sort all my sent mail by messages sent to metachat people, I could email shaneguy+MetaChat@gmail.com. It would still go to shaneguy@gmail.com, but the extra text goes along with it.

posted by mullacc 13 October | 15:41

I have a lastname.occupation gmail address, and I sent a test one from my yahoo account to lastnameoccupation and received it. If this helps. It probably doesn't.

posted by black bile 13 October | 15:42

It seems like they're saying that shaneguy and shane.guy are the same address, so there shouldn't be two seperate accounts. But you're indicating that there are two seperate accounts. Weird.

Exactly! I receive e-mails sent to shaneguy AND shane.guy. The "other guy" who has "shaneguy" receives e-mails sent to shaneguy but, I think, not to shane.guy.

It's a bug to me, since I didn't see a prominent disclaimor telling me this when I signed up, and especially since shaneguy was not prevented from signing up as such because shane.guy already existed.

posted by shane 13 October | 15:44

I haven't gotten anything.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 13 October | 15:45

There should be no other guy. When you signed up as shane.guy, GMail read that as shaneguy, s.haneguy, shaneg.uy, etc...you are all of them. If not, you should contact Google because that would be a major flaw. How do you know there's another guy?

posted by mullacc 13 October | 15:47

What mullacc said. I have a lastname.occupation@gmail.com account. I sent a test message to lastnameoccupation and received it.

Then I tried to sign up for a new account with lastnameoccupation as the username, but it told me that the name was unavailable. So I agree that shane is shaneguy and just doesn't know it.

On preview: Or maybe not.

posted by mudpuppie 13 October | 15:48

How do you know there's another guy?

Because I just got an e-mail from his buddies to him. Also, some strange people requested to be contacts for Gmail chat, I accepted them, then later learned they were looking for shaneguy, not shane.guy. So I know his buddies now too.

There's definitely another guy with shaneguy, while I have shane.guy.

posted by shane 13 October | 16:05

Are you sure these people aren't just assuming shaneguy@gmail.com is their buddies' address? Perhaps he really has shaneguy2@gmail.com or shaneguy@yahoo.com?

posted by mullacc 13 October | 16:10

I'm with mullacc -- maybe it's a case of mistaken email service?

posted by me3dia 13 October | 16:23

Nonetheless, I'd email shaneguy's buddies and ask them to get this other guy in touch with you. And I'd contact google support and report the problem -- once it's determined that shaneguy's friends aren't emailing the wrong address.

posted by me3dia 13 October | 16:24

Well, I just emailed myself without the dot (fnamelname) and I got it at my gmail address with dot (fnameDOTlname) that I've been using since, oh at least a couple of years now. If that helps.

posted by mygothlaundry 13 October | 18:09

Oh, the shenanigans! I received an email from eBay saying, "Dude, you should register your account." And I'm like, "Hey, I'm not 'Trisha Sison'; what's she doing using my @gmail.com address to set up an eBay account for?" And I did a Google search and there is a "Trisha Sison" out there, and then some woman emailed me saying that we'd met at some conference!

Here's the text of that email:

Hi Trisha,

I think I made a complete arse of myself at the meeting tonight! Sorry I disrupted the meeting........
The worst part was that Bryce didn't even remember why I was so full of stupid energy! Oh well...

I have to tell you that I enjoy coming to the Witness meetings. It is fun for me to see you do such a great job leading the meetings, taking hold of what is going to happen, and making it happen.
Thank you!

Elsie Ulland
Independent Beauty Consultant:
http://www.marykay.com/eulland

If this is a phishing scheme, it seems to be a very elaborate one.

posted by TrishaLynn 13 October | 22:00

As a test from the other side, I sent an email to an address I have with a dot sans dot, and I did get it. so if there is a 'shaneguy' out there he should be getting your emails,

However, I don't think Google would allow multiple to tap each others addresses like that. I'm assuming that there is no shaneguy@gmail.com account, and that people are sending those messages by accident, or that it's some kind of weird spam.

posted by delmoi 14 October | 06:32

Are you sure these people aren't just assuming shaneguy@gmail.com is their buddies' address? Perhaps he really has shaneguy2@gmail.com or shaneguy@yahoo.com?
posted by mullacc 13 October | 16:10

On review, entirely possible. Thanks. I'll check it out.

posted by shane 14 October | 15:29

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