SFist: Ask SFist -- Abandon Your College Email Address?

yesyes

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 14:03:38 -0800

dude, brock, i am SO a le tigre lesbian, NOT an ani difranco lesbian. DIVERSITY PLS.

Deborah

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:32:27 -0800

Brock - Hopefully, you will join us for drinks at the Lexington afterwards.

Brock Keeling

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:14:29 -0800

i just bought the two of you tickets to see ani defranco as well as a reservation for a private hot tub at osento.

Deborah

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:11:23 -0800

You know it. Wilder represent!

yesyes

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:55:03 -0800

well, yes. i, uh, never use mine either. WHATEVER. you totes lived in the quad, didn't you?

Deborah

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:50:14 -0800

yesyes - I've got mad, Quad Riot, Mountain Day-like love for Sophia. @smith.alumnae.net is a little bit long and pretentious...no?

yesyes

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:40:37 -0800

oh deborah, why you gotta hate on momma sophia's email addresses? she just wants to love you, and get you to walk in the ivy day parade.

Greg

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:08:36 -0800

good God this question makes me feel old and I'm not really that old anyway...when I went to UC Santa Cruz, most people didn't have email addresses unless they were a "Unix B Geek" or in the sciences and used one on one of the terminals around campus. I remember at one point signing up for one, but since I didn't have a modem on my crap-tacular Mac in my stupid dorm room, I never really used it, and they were really pesky about access once you left campus. and brock I agree, re; the alumni association, they repeatedly beg me for money and whatnot and I keep resisting...

citi_zen

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 13:33:50 -0800

rachdiggs - you are so right!!! When screening resumes, I wanted to email back to some of those people - like "glittergirl@aol.com" & suggest they get a "professional" type email address for applying to jobs with! Or just send them the link to "job hunting for dummies" on Amazon!

dolemite43

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 10:28:41 -0800

I'd rather see a college address than a ton of emails from friends saying they've switched from yahoo to gmail or vice versa (I don't know anyone who would switch to gmail though). I like my alumni address for the fact I can change my email address behind the scenes without anyone knowing I have a "new" email address. I hate it when I have a friend with two addresses and I never know which one to send it too. Hotmail? Yahoo? Work? etc. I'm sure they are annoyed I send it to both emails. So I'm all for the forwarding email address and the college ones are the most common I think. I know there are other forwarding emails out there, but I don't think LunchBoxBiscuit@beer.com has the best ring to it.

Bri

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:42:30 -0800

I don't understand why anybody would want to keep their UC account. As a current user, I can tell you umail SUCKS.

jameth

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:30:36 -0800

i stopped using mine when i graduated because gmail was so much better.

RinconHillSF

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:20:39 -0800

The University of Michigan has the right idea .... allow folks to use it forever and ever as a forwarding address... best of both worlds, eh?

jnice

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:04:54 -0800

"@" Spencer - I'm not exactly methuselah but I didn't get my first email address till I got to college and they gave me one - and I wouldn't have had any idea how to get my own even if I'd realized I should have one. I don't think Yahoo was around then or if it was it hadn't made it to cornell - the San Jose of the Ivys. p.s. follow up questions to babycarrot@smallpenis.com

pantsgolem

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:41:01 -0800

Brock: I believe the phrase you're looking for is "pics or it didn't happen" I use my berkeley.edu email for any school-related stuff -- it gets mail read faster in some cases, and once it's deactivated, any potentially annoying people I have worked/will work on projects with will no longer have my email after graduation. It all gets forwarded to my gmail anyway, cause holy crap CalMail's web interface sucks balls.

fizzandpop

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:25:15 -0800

All that matters is your lineage and whether you married into a family of greater social standing. You can't buy class and display it on your license plate holder, bumper sticker, hoody, or in this case, email address. It's instant ostracism for those who mention their alma mater within the first fifteen years of knowing me. Let's face it, if you have to go to college to learn something, then you're a bit dim to begin with, aren't you? Some are born to rule, others to serve.

Deborah

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:42:13 -0800

I was forced to get a Smith email address to join the Smith network on Facebook. I was on the network for two days and then left. Now I have this dumb old Smith address. Anyone want to buy it from me?

rachdiggs

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:22:19 -0800

Yeah, I'm surprised any college lets people keep their .edu addresses permanently... unless that's recent with the gmail revolution. I used my Stanford alumni address when applying for my first job out of college, specifically as a way of prestigious name-dropping. I mean, you can't blame a kid who just graduated and has nothing else on their record. Now that I actually have a resume with stuff ON it, I use my gmail. On an awesome/depressing note, I once had to read resumes for my old job and saw MORE THAN ONE with return emails like "sexychk6969@aol.com." Dealbreaker for real.

Brock Keeling

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:17:03 -0800

@we_are_kevin oh my.

mpantone

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:08:55 -0800

I never used any school e-mail addresses. I agree though, if you've graduated and you're not part of faculty or staff, it's time to move on.

we_are_kevin

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:43:45 -0800

Agreed incandenza. But, I am the exception. I use my harvard.edu address but have a very large penis. Go figure... I think the real issue is undersalting of dishes.

innersunsetfog

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:34:57 -0800

i'm going to keep using mine until i can get @itotallyliveinsanfrancisco.com

bornandraised

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:30:56 -0800

maybe i'm missing something, but why is it "annoying" to see people still using their college email? When you reply to the message does the fact that you notice that @mycollege.edu really make ones hair stand on end? what if your friend is just lazy and hasn't bothered to change it?

Brock Keeling

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:30:35 -0800

@TheCharlie Hello there, fellow Banana Slug! I think UCSC strips you of your diploma as well if you don't pay alumni dues. At least, I wouldn't be surprised if they did. They're worse than my creditors. Wait, what?

TheCharlie

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:26:19 -0800

I used it back when it was my first real email address (at UCSC), but they didn't let people keep them after graduating back then (and I'm not paying my alumni dues), so I was forced to get a real address. In grad school (SFSU), nobody used the school address because we all knew it wouldn't last.

sagitta100

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 15:13:20 -0800

When I was at SFSU in the 90's, I bought my own domain name for email. 13 years later, I still have the same email address.

sethland

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:55:05 -0800

only if it can be forwarded to a new address. It annoys me when I try to get in touch with college friends and their umail is defunct. Who bothers anymore to tell friends you have a new email address?

Spencer Williams

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:38:11 -0800

I never used my college email when I was in college! You need a new professional address for interviews/resumes even before you leave college.

Incandenza

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:36:21 -0800

I never used mine, not even when I was in university. Whenever I get email from someone @harvard.alumni.edu I think about how small their penis must be.