Domain Envy? Or Domain Snobs?

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Domain Envy? Or Domain Snobs?

Hello everyone, this is Leo Notenboom with news, commentary and answers to some of the many questions I get at askleo.info.

This week I heard a new term: domain envy. It's supposed to apply to folks with email addresses at domains like hotmail.com yahoo.com and others. The thinking is that they are, or should be, envious of others who have more prestigious domains for their email addresses.

I look at it the other way around. I think there's a lot of domain snobbishness going on. It works like this: email coming from a hotmail.com or yahoo.com address is not taken seriously because the sender is likely either:

• Spamming, since a lot of spam seems to come from these domains
• Fake, because a lot of people, spam and viruses spoof their email as coming from these domains
• A child, since most children don't pay for their own accounts, and hence use free services

Or lastly

• A neophyte, someone who is barely computer literate or just doesn't know any better.

Based on my experiences here on Ask Leo! I have to sort of agree on that last one. The majority of my "newbie" questions do seem to come from the free email accounts. Similarly, if someone asks a question that was clearly and obviously answered on the top of the very page they're entering the comment on, there's a high probability that it's a hotmail or yahoo user.

AOL suffers a similar stigma, since it's targeted at the non-technical user. Sadly, I even know of one extremely large mailing list that will not accept subscriptions from AOL subscribers, claiming that the maintenance and hand-holding required is simply too much, and not worth it.

I've commented before on the worth of free email accounts, or the lack there of. For better or for worse, I see this as yet another reason to spend a few bucks each month for a "real" email address. And probably not AOL.

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