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Comment on Sure thing, website, my name is Gabe Newell

When I was younger, I filled in the first email address that popped into my head in order to fill in these web forms: “joeblow@aol.com.”

Turns out, it’s an actual email address. I know, because some forms won’t let me make up a non-legitimate address, but they always accepted that one.

For over 20 years, I’ve been using that as my go-to throwaway address anytime a web form blocks me from proceeding.

To whomever owns that address… I’m sorry for all the spam you may have incurred thanks to me. But it’s such a perfect generic throwaway name! I’ve never forgotten it.

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momocchi@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
That’s a low blow to Joe Blow bro

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domdanial@reddthat.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Websites don’t have an actual check for a legit email… That’s why they send confirmation links to click. Forms check that it ends with @something.something, sometimes they can add filters to not allow anything other than the 20 most popular domains. Or they can block addresses with less than 3 characters, because nobody real has those. But most forms you can keyboard smash anything@anything.anything. They just might make a temp account until it’s confirmed or something.

But joeblow@aol.com almost certainly was/is real.

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- Ziglin@lemmy.world ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  My personal email is less than 3 characters before the @, I suppose it’s a good thing that I don’t use it for non human interactions.
  
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- dan@upvote.au ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  
  Websites don’t have an actual check for a legit email.
  
  Some do. You can connect to an SMTP server and pretend to send an email (send the EHLO, MAIL FROM, and RCPT TO commands, but dint actually send any content). A lot of servers will immediately reject as soon as you provide an invalid recipient email address
  
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  - domdanial@reddthat.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Huh thank you for the more correct information, I didn’t know about those options.
    
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- Scrollone@feddit.it ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You’re partially right, I’d like to add some details: websites can also check if a domain (e.g. example.com) actually exists. So if you smash random letters on your keyboard and you end up with a non-existing domain, a website will be able to stop you from using that address.
  
  More advanced websites also check for an MX record on the domain DNS. If a domain exists but it doesn’t have an MX record, then it’s not going to be able to receive emails and may be blocked in sign up forms.
  
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  - domdanial@reddthat.com ⁨10⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Wow thank you for the info, I didn’t know they had such advanced lookups.
    
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