What seems more formal in a email underscore or dot ?

Just curious really, many student liason officers in my college are fussing about making a formal business email address, and when the cookie crumbles it seems that firstname[underscore]secondname@domain.etc or firstname[dot]secondname@domain.etc are the best to pick, whats your opinions?

PS im not challenging anyone or insulting anyone in the way the emails are liked to be set up, this is what they want i solely want opinions

Nathan-Fader

*the address became links and the underscore and dot wasnt visible.. pointed out by Royal, safe for that!!

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

royal

Dot is better. Why? Look at your post. Everything is underline and to some people, it'd look as if the e-mail was a space rather than an underscore. Period is the way to go imo.

nathan-fader

royal wrote:

Dot is better. Why? Look at your post. Everything is underline and to some people, it'd look as if the e-mail was a space rather than an underscore. Period is the way to go imo.

im just wondering, like it seems better to do a dot, but then most of the email addresses with dots are taken, or for the fidgety people like myself.. when you stare at it long enough it doesn't seem to give the first and second name space, makes it just seem too long to handle...

and when you say a email address with an underscore it kinder gives the two seperating words recognisable space from each other..

but maybe its me

Nathan-Fader

dynamik

royal wrote:

Dot is better. Why? Look at your post. Everything is underline and to some people, it'd look as if the e-mail was a space rather than an underscore. Period is the way to go imo.

+1. Totally agree.

stlsmoore

I've been using my under score hotmail address for years and haven't run into any problems yet. In fact I landed every IT job including my new one just last week with that address. I don't think it really matters as long as your email isn't a crazy name.

royal

All the replies are going to be opinion btw. There's no wrong way. It's all a matter of preference.

Sie

The Tasmanian Government email address naming standards, October 2002 states they use firstname.surname.

Source: http://www.stors.tas.gov.au/au-7-0020-00055;jsessionid=4d7595d098d445d6a004e845572b849e

Random I know but it is 4:43am!

Either is good, I dont think it matters aslong as your not hot_stuff@bigpackage.com

nathan-fader

Sie wrote:

The Tasmanian Government email address naming standards, October 2002 states they use firstname.surname.

Source: http://www.stors.tas.gov.au/au-7-0020-00055;jsessionid=4d7595d098d445d6a004e845572b849e

Random I know but it is 4:43am!

Either is good, I dont think it matters aslong as your not hot_stuff@bigpackage.com

That's Interesting ..

hmm.. thanks for the feedback.. how comes your awake at such times

networker050184

Sie wrote:

Either is good, I dont think it matters aslong as your not hot_stuff@bigpackage.com

I don't appreciate you putting my email address out there for everyone see

One more for the dot here but like royal stated its all opinions here.

Sie

nathan-fader wrote:

That's Interesting .. hmm.. thanks for the feedback.. how comes your awake at such times

Work till 7am

networker050184 wrote:

Sie wrote:

Either is good, I dont think it matters aslong as your not hot_stuff@bigpackage.com

Stop putting it on the posters around town then

I would go with a dot as its easier to read as Royal pointed out in his first post, saves explaining to 'some' people what an underscore is.

"Underline?...."
"Is it the line at the bottom?....."

Daniel333

There are still people who don't know where the _ is. So I would stick to the .

.

APA

I prefer firstinitiallastname@company.com

eg hstuff@bigpackage.com

hehehe Stole Sie's example there...

Schluep

A.P.A wrote:

I prefer firstinitiallastname@company.com

eg hstuff@bigpackage.com

hehehe Stole Sie's example there...

This is my preference as well.

Using firstname.surname can get very long for some people and nobody wants to try and spell all of that over the phone to someone. I have one client whos first name is 10 letters and surname is 8. In my opinion the more letters involved the great chance there is for a mistake and firstinitiallastname@... is certainly proffessional.

sprkymrk

Schluep wrote:

A.P.A wrote:

I prefer firstinitiallastname@company.com

eg hstuff@bigpackage.com

hehehe Stole Sie's example there...

This is my preference as well.

Using firstname.surname can get very long for some people and nobody wants to try and spell all of that over the phone to someone. I have one client whos first name is 10 letters and surname is 8. In my opinion the more letters involved the great chance there is for a mistake and firstinitiallastname@... is certainly proffessional.

That's hard to do in an environment with 40,000 people though. So a lot depends on the size of your organization.

blargoe

I prefer first initial + lastname or lastname + firstinitial, or first.last. I don't think it really matters though, as long as it's your name and not some nickname, online alias, your favorite sports team, etc. I think underscores are fine.

dtlokee

I prefer the dot ever since I had a use call me complaining they couldn't send an email to john_smith@example.com. I went to their desk and they were typing in "johnunderscoresmith@example.com" When I corrected the guy he said "how is anyone supposed to know that is called an underscore?" So I guess a dot is easier.

/sigh

APA

sprkymrk wrote:

Schluep wrote:

A.P.A wrote:

I prefer firstinitiallastname@company.com

eg hstuff@bigpackage.com

hehehe Stole Sie's example there...

This is my preference as well.

Using firstname.surname can get very long for some people and nobody wants to try and spell all of that over the phone to someone. I have one client whos first name is 10 letters and surname is 8. In my opinion the more letters involved the great chance there is for a mistake and firstinitiallastname@... is certainly proffessional.

That's hard to do in an environment with 40,000 people though. So a lot depends on the size of your organization.

Yeah that's a valid point you raise! but the way we overcome it is if two users share same first initial and last name then we bring the middle initial into play...... Although our company size is just under 10,000 so it's probably still a bit easier to implement this sort of email convention.

Size of organization does play a big role when making these decisions......

APA

dtlokee wrote:

I prefer the dot ever since I had a use call me complaining they couldn't send an email to john_smith@example.com. I went to their desk and they were typing in "johnunderscoresmith@example.com" When I corrected the guy he said "how is anyone supposed to know that is called an underscore?" So I guess a dot is easier.

/sigh

until you come across another user with the 'meatware' virus that types in

johndotsmith@exampledotcom

/frustrated sigh

Schluep

dtlokee wrote:

I prefer the dot ever since I had a use call me complaining they couldn't send an email to john_smith@example.com. I went to their desk and they were typing in "johnunderscoresmith@example.com" When I corrected the guy he said "how is anyone supposed to know that is called an underscore?" So I guess a dot is easier.

/sigh

And I had hoped it was an isolated incident when I encountered it. I had someone typing "dot" and "at" also though.