I know I hahe been a little lax in updating anything on here recently. However, never going anywhere means that you don’t see as much interesting stuff as normal.
Stumbled across this today ClicketyClicketyLinkyLinky and wonder whether this is the start of a new form of discrimination? The article is pushing it as ‘domain shame’ which I think suggests that the shame element is with the sender.
I think, however, that the prejudice element is coming from the recipient and not from the sender. Prejudice always comes from someone else to begin with, it’s not like anyone ever felt inferior within their own group to begin with. What I think is sad about this is that originally there was the ‘digital divide’. Those people who had and understood computers and were online with them versus those who did not have one and were not online. Now that this has started to be addressed with the falling prices of kit we manage to come up with another way of discriminating against a certain group of people.
Where do I see this going? Ultimately I see it continuing, probably only within a small group of people. I think that the majority of people will really not care what your email address looks like. Where it will continue to be prevalent is within the business community. I think to some degree this is a necessity, caused by the volume of spam generated by the junk mailers from these domains. If the junk mail stops then some of the basis for the prejudice will also have been removed. It might not then go away but at least one reason has been removed.
Just my tuppence worth, let me know what you think about?
The question is: Do you really want to be a friend or cyberfriend of someone who discriminates on the basis of email addresses? Let’s face it, the kids at school who wouldn’t talk to you because you had the wrong trainers turned out to be a bunch of tossers didn’t they? Fuck ‘em – Say it loud, I’m Hotmail and I’m proud!
I completely and utterly discriminate on the basis of email address.
But I’m a geek.
As you say, like any form of discrimination, the problem lies with the recipient. If they wish to discriminate on the basis of email domain then that is their own small-minded problem. I use a HotMail account on a regular basis because I don’t want my “proper” inbox getting spammed to high heaven. Now tell me, does that make me technically un-savvy? Quite the opposite I would say.
Like the person who thinks you can infer alot about someone’s personality from how shiny their shoes are. Yes, that’s right, you can tell a great deal about the complex workings of the human brain from shiny shoes. What morons!
People who disciminate on the basis of email address should take a good long look at themselves and try asking the question “In how many ways could I be discriminated against?”. I suspect the answer will be plenty and that they wouldn’t enjoy being discriminated against in any of those ways.