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Better Solutions for Changing E-mail addressesDavid Radin March 2003
Summary: You have alternatives that make it easier to change your e-mail address, no matter why you're changing it. Some are better than others.
It has become a lot more commonplace than we had earlier imagined - large Internet Service Providers who get swallowed up by other ISPs - who then require all users to change their e-mail addresses.
In some cases, the transition has been easy, with the new ISP giving their users plenty of time to send out change-of-address notices and modifying their software settings. In other cases, it has been horrendous - for the user himself, and for his associates, family, and others who must figure out how to contact him despite an invalid e-mail address.
One of the most notable examples happened when AT&T Broadband took over the assets and user base of Excite@Home. Up until that time, users of Excite@Home's cable Internet business had their mail delivered to addresses @home.com. After a prolonged fight between the two companies in which some users lost e-mail access entirely, the users finally settled in with AT&T providing their Internet connectivity. In doing so, AT&T required the ex-Excite@Home users to change their e-mail addresses to the @attbi.com domain.
The changeover caused problems for both savvy and novice e-mail users. In all cases, the users had to notify their associates, family, friends, and others that their address would no longer be myname@home.com ; but would be myname@attbi.com . AT&T Broadband placed automation on the web site for a short time period to alert senders of the change - but those didn't always do the trick. So many messages went undelivered.
Hopefully, that won't happen again to users as they switch services by force. For instance, Comcast Corporation, who just recently bought that same AT&T Broadband service, says that they expect to give users over a year to changeover from attbi.com addresses to comcast.net addresses. Yet the issue is something that users must face - because they must notify their associates, have others change their address books, and change their subscription addresses.
Everybody can be affected
You don't have to be part of a corporate takeover to be affected by changing e-mail addresses. According to Wired Magazine, 31% of all Internet users change their e-mail addresses each year. Some do it because they move to a new city ; others change jobs or companies; still others make the change to get away from a spam laden e-mail account. In each case, problems can arise that are similar to those that happen when your ISP changes its e-mail addressing schemes.
Solutions
There are several ways to deal with e-mail changes - although some are better than others. You can simply go along for the ride by letting your e-mail address change every time. While it looks to be the simplest on the surface, this actually becomes the most burdensome over time. You can also subscribe to a notification service. Some people obtain a second address to use "just in case". Or you can remove the problem completely with a permanent, portable address that you can take from ISP to ISP or job to job. Let's look at these alternatives.
Do Nothing
If your ISP changes your address and you decide to do nothing, a large chain of events takes place around you. Usually, there will be a changeover period in which both your current and your new address are active. During this time period, you are expected to send notices to all the people who correspond with you, hoping that they will change all the instances in which your address appears - in their address books, on their notes, in their PDAs, etc. If you subscribe to any newsletters, you'll need to find out where to change your profile, and replace your current address with your new address. Be sure to spell it correctly. Common errors include using '.com' when the address actually ends in '.org' or '.net' - and simple proofreading errors in which you forget a letter or transpose two or more letters.
At some point, your current address will become unusable. That could be immediately if you are making the change between ISPs - or it could take place over time if your ISP is changing your address. As soon as your current e-mail address is deactivated, any messages sent to that address will be returned as undeliverable - even the important ones.
Update Services
Under some circumstances, an update service might be in order for you. These services send out inquiries to people in your address book asking for their updated information. Then they update your address book automatically. I know several people who use these services effectively. The problem is that once the recipient's address is deactivated, these services become useless in updating that specific address. So you need to send out your inquiries on a regular basis to make sure that the person on the other side remembers to include you when they change their address.
It's probably obvious to you that these solutions work for people who want to make sure that they don't lose other people's addresses - but don't work as well when it's your address that is changed - unless you instruct the service to send out your notices from your new address, along with your new contact information. Hopefully the person on the other end will take heed - and change their address books to include your updated information.
The additional address
Many people keep multiple addresses. In this way, they are able to have a backup to their business address - in case they change jobs; or for their ISP address, in case the ISP goes under or through some unacceptable changes. If they move, many of the sources of extra e-mail addresses can move with them at no additional cost.
The main advantages to this approach is that most secondary e-mail services are not ISP dependent, allowing you to change ISPs without having to change your secondary address.
There are several disadvantages to this approach. First, you'll have to give everybody this backup address if you really want to use it for back up. So expect two copies of messages from many people who don't know which to use, or who don't bother to choose between them.
Second, you'll need to check both addresses continuously. Otherwise you risk not seeing messages.
Third, most of the vendors who offer these types of e-mail accounts require you to log in frequently or risk deactivation. For instance, if you use a free Hotmail account, if you wait 30 days between logins, Hotmail will make you re-register as a user the next time you login.
Fourth, most of these free secondary accounts are limited in the number of messages, the size of the messages, or the amount of space in your inbox. This might not immediately look like a problem to you, but if a spammer sends even a single large message to your secondary e-mail address, it could tie up your inbox so no additional mail can come in.
Permanent e-mail addresses
Perhaps the best solution is to get a permanent e-mail address that stays with you from ISP to ISP or from job to job - but delivers the mail into your local account. This allows you to get all your mail in one place, yet move your inbox from ISP to ISP (or employer to employer) without ever having to send out a change of address notice.
Based on listener and reader comments, I have actually put together a service that can do this, called Spam Slicer. With Spam Slicer, you have a permanent address that can follow you around if you move. And it has the added luxury of protecting you from unwanted junk e-mail. Plus, if you use Outlook, Outlook Express, Netscape Mail, or some other e-mail software with advanced mail management features, Spam Slicer can identify any subscriptions that might have changed their own ISPs or sender addresses, helping you automatically file them into their own folders.
A newer service that offers the same permanent, portable e-mail address is GenineSportsFan. This service (also operated by Spam Slicer LLC), adds the benefit of an e-mail address that shows you're a sports fan - football, golf, baseball, soccer, basketball, and more.
Both services are inexpensive, and give you a long term solution, instead of a short term fix for a problem that might crop up again.
DR |