mikey@ontek.UUCP (Mike Lee) (04/24/89)
Not so long ago I posted something along the lines of this: > I am sitting at a machine (Sun/4, running 4.0) connected (via a modem) > to UUNET. That is the only outside connection. I would like to send > mail to someone on BITNET. He gave me his address in the form of > JOEBLOW@UCXXABCD. How should I address mail to him in such a way that > there is a flying chance in heck that it might reach my friend Joe? I have since then received dozens of different replies from dozens of individuals. I have never seen anything (including my own post) on comp.mail.misc here, so others may have contributed to the fray as well. They have my implicit apologies for not thanking them directly. It's clear that addressing e-mail is an art, not a science. I've decided to treat this like a survey and post the results here: address votes ------- ------ joeblow@site.bitnet 4 psuvax1!site.bitnet!joeblow 2 site!joeblow@cunyvm.bitnet 2 psuvax1!joeblow@site.bitnet 1 relay.cs.net!joeblow%site.bitnet 1 vb.cc.cmu.edu!site.bitnet!joeblow 1 joeblow@site 1 site.bitnet!joeblow 1 joeblow%site@cunyvm.cuny.edu 1 The mailer here seems to require a leading "uunet!..." so that's implied in the above addresses. When someone specified more than one address, I only counted the most specific (longest) one. The clear winner is "joeblow@site.bitnet", and if you count "site.bitnet!joeblow" towards that, it's almost a landslide. These votes were counted as of 12 noon PDT 04/23/89 Sunday. I'd love to keep tallying up the votes as they come in, but since I have a real job I'm gonna have to stop here and get back to work :-( One of you wise guys made a rather off-color pun on cunyvm. Or at least it seemed that way to me. Maybe I was imagining things. It must have been something I ate :-) I can't tell by the green glow of the tube whether my face is red or not... As to whether any of the addresses actually worked, all I can say is that I have tried the first two formats listed above and my mail hasn't bounced yet, but I haven't gotten a reply from joe blow yet either. Maybe I'll just call him up on the telephone... NAW! Once again, thanks to all and to all a good night. Mike Lee Ontek Corporation "It feel likes my head wantsa bus open" - D. Letterman VOX: 1-714-768-0301 UUCP: ...uunet!ontek!mikey USPS: 22951 Mill Creek Road Laguna Hills CA 92653 DISCLAIMER: My employer thinks I have better things to do than to make dumb postings and send e-mail all day.