[ethbr1]

It does lead to people sending mail to the wrong address, from personal experience since Gmail was in beta. I've gotten sensitive emails and account signups with different dots for years.

But the cause of that appears to be user error -- people thinking they own email addresses that are not actually theirs.

[InsomniacL]

> I've gotten sensitive emails and account signups with different dots for years.

Please, please give an example..

Also, read this..

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/7436150?hl=en#zippy=%...

> if your email is [e-mail], you own all dotted versions of your address

> If anyone tries to create a Gmail account with a dotted version of your username, they'll get an error saying the username is already taken.

> Your account is still private and secure. Emails sent to any dotted version of your address will only go to you.

[c0pium]

This happens to me all the time. There are two people, one in Massachusetts and one in Suffolk UK who have my same name and regularly put in FirstLast@gmail as opposed to the first.last@gmail that I use. The Massachusetts person does this because they forget that their gmail is the full version of “first” as opposed to the shorter version I use. The Brit is confusing gmail for hotmail. Yes really. Most people don’t care that much about computers. If it’s possible to screw up, someone will.

Someone gets righteously indignant that this cannot happen in every thread about dots in gmail, despite the fact that there are many people it happens to. They’re not making it up, why would someone do that?

[nmeofthestate]

>The Massachusetts person does this because they forget that their gmail is the full version of “first” as opposed to the shorter version I use.

So they just get their email wrong, and it's nothing to do with dotted variants.

[InsomniacL]

You own both FirstLast@gmail and first.last@gmail. Try send an email to both, and you should get both emails.

They are likely making a typeo elsewhere in their email address which is causing the confusion.

for example:

[e-mail]

[e-mail]

Notice one is Steve and the other is Steven, the dot has nothing to do with it.

[richardw]

Please look at my example up thread. It’s the combination of mistakes amplified by the dots. The dots make it worse by far.

I just searched for my name with no dots in my gmail. Man. It’s a dumpster fire. I have to put up with hundreds and hundred of wrong mails monthly because this feature amplifies the mistakes so much. And it adds to spam because other people type the wrong mails into forms and gmail “fixes” it by ignoring the lack of dots. It’s honestly infuriating. We know we own all versions. We get it. That’s what causes extra work for us and makes us like the product less.

My experience would be significantly improved if I could have all the non canonical addresses bounce. I agree that I would also like nobody else to own one of the other dot versions but that’s also possible.

[xigoi]

> My experience would be significantly improved if I could have all the non canonical addresses bounce.

I'm pretty sure you could set up a filter for that.

[richardw]

Yup, downside is people who have had others make mistakes, never see their mail.

[InsomniacL]

Can you please explain how the dots have any affect?

[richardw]

I did, here. Was it not enough info?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37339688

Rewritten: For various reasons, people mistype emails and they usually end up with a no-dotted address. Mine, as the catch-all, gets that mail.

A classic made up example is eg “fred.fredflintstone@gmail”. I have many times received mail for that person because I’m “fred.flintstone@gmail”. People see the double fred, remove the first and hit my account. I also get for “fredtflintstone” (notice the t, many don’t) and this last month “fredrflintstone”. Life would be much easier for all if gmail just bounced those when someone types it as “fredflintstone”. They’d check and fix it.

This is amplified by spam, because any leaks others make hits my account. They should bounce.

This morning I put up a filter to the no dot version. About a month ago someone put my no-dot version on their dodgy Microsoft ads account. I spent ages trying to get off it and somehow Microsoft still hasn’t taken me off. Now I’m just filtering that to deleted, along with mail for all the mistakes above. I’m done. Gmail’s dot policy enables this hugely.

[ethbr1]

No one misunderstands that, as that's what parent said.

[c0pium]

I already said that, and it’s orthogonal to my point.

[Bluecobra]

I’ve gotten emails from some other Gmail account, for example an Uber receipt. I found that by digging in the header that there was a “x-forwarded-to:” to me. My guess is that the original user accidentally configured a bad email forward.

[jeroenhd]

That's the point I think, the dots aren't causing any issues here, some people just assume their account is [e-mail] and many of them are too stubborn to accept that it's not.

They never had an email address with or without dots that's made up of the same letters as your email address. Their email address is probably very different (maybe they forgot to add a number, or a middle initial, or typed Gmail when they should've typed Outlook). The dots are just a stylistic choice.

[ethbr1]

Exactly. The dots are useful from a UX perspective, as it makes "incorrectly addressed" email more obvious.

I've spent way too much time thinking about this.

Well, specifically about the kind of person who would use an email address they don't own to (a) buy a house, (b) apply for a FL sheriff's job, (c) conduct financial transactions, etc. (all actual examples I've received).

You think you have a bead on how ignorant people are, and then you realize there's a long tail you weren't aware of...

[jeroenhd]

I think there's also a distinct possibility that the senders just have the wrong email address, especially when it contains a name.

You could own [e-mail] but someone you only occasionally do business with might have accidentally put down [e-mail] when you first met. Emails back and forth will work (because they can reply to your emails) but when they try to send you email, someone else will receive it.

This can also go unnoticed (i.e. when someone sends an email stating "when are you sending the documents?" -> "I already did, maybe they ended up in spam, here you have them again"). People probably won't notice unless the unintended recipient tells the sender that they got the email address wrong. I imagine that might happen a few times, but after a few years of other people using your email address, you'd stop bothering.

[ethbr1]

I generally try and reply with "This email address isn't owned by the person you're trying to reach. Please reach out to them and reconfirm what email they want you to use."

Responses have been pretty bizarre though. I usually get what amounts to an "Okay".

I would have expected some sort of "Could you please delete those sensitive documents we sent you?" at minimum.

Also bizarre... I don't have a very common name or email address for my main Gmail.

I can only imagine what [e-mail] has to deal with.

From a solution / feature perspective, it'd be nice to have a auto-response + trash on anything other than allowlisted dots and plusses. Maybe Gmail supports this? The worst offenders finally got the picture, so I didn't dig into it.

[jeroenhd]

Gmail does support conditional auto replies and filters. You could probably filter out most typos if you stick to your own format for every website and contact you have.