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Ask HN: I got the .com for my surname, best way to share this with family?

3 points by consumer451 ↗ HN
I have a relatively uncommon surname, and I was eventually able to get the surname.com

At this time, I have the most basic G Suite account using the domain name, so I can have myfirst@lastname.com, although I am not tied down to this. I just did it because after playing with proton, fastmail, and others, gmail was the most reliable email.

If I want to share the opportunity to have firstname@lastname.com with my family members, with whom I am not close at all, what is the best way to accomplish this?

^ That is the main question, don't get distracted by the rest of my post below.

I could manually accomplish this a few different ways, but is there anything out there which would enable this with the least amount of legal and customer support liability?

I don't want to host email. I was thinking just incoming forwards would be easiest, but would love to hear any other thoughts on the matter. Ideally, incoming and outgoing would be supported, though I know Send As is up to the email host.

Something like https://home.omg.lol/ but only for email aliases? I would manually approve each application, but the mechanics would be automated. Is there FOSS anywhere close to this?

Sorry if this question is a mess. Thanks in advance for any advice.

21 comments

[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 47.3 ms ] thread
akerl_
Isn't this definitionally what GSuite does? Make 'em each a user/inbox in GSuite, bam, done.
consumer451
But there is a per user cost for GSuite... I don't want to be in the middle of any of that. This could scale to 100-200 users.

I guess I could tell them that they have to have a GMail account, and explain on surname.com how to set up Send As?

Then just host the MX at a host which allows me infinite forwards?

But with spam stuff, that would not be ideal.

akerl_
I don't think there's a fix here that's free, easy, and avoids you being on the hook.

I'm also a bit fascinated at the potential that you have 100+ people that you are related to but that you're not close to who would opt in to changing their email address onto one that you have ultimate control over.

consumer451
100+ people is the upper bound of the surname afaik.

I don't want to have ultimate control... I would love to pay this for as long as possible, and let it go.

I ain't young, I got maybe 20 years left. But I just figured that I was not the first person to face this type of issue.

solardev
If I may be frank, I think you may be overestimating the people who'd want a firstname@lastname.com address?

That's been easy for anyone to get if they were willing to pay and spend a few minutes of research. Most people just don't care.

Even if you spent the money on a Gsuite user for every person, you probably wouldn't get more than a tiny handful of users, and most of those would probably stop using it once the novelty wears off.

Are you sure this is even a problem worth solving? What about just inviting those closest to you and asking if they'd want to pay you a few bucks a year for a special email address? Probably it won't be worth the trouble for either of you, realistically.

consumer451
Thank you. Due to the conversation in this post, I realized that I am going to just manually make aliases via Namecheap (my domain host) which allows 100 email fwds per domain.

The receive is the socially powerful part. Telling someone: my email is first@last.com is the general power/benefit. If anyone wants a real email account at the domain, then we can talk more.

Samon
Receiving is only half of the conversation though - eventually you end up in a situation where you need to reply from the same address.

Also, be prepared for the tech support questions, the "I never received an email from X that they swear they sent", the "My emails seem to take ages to come through", the "My emails are ending up in the recipients spam folder", etc...

sp332
None of the people in this group share a first name? What's your policy for who gets the address and who gets stuck with adam2 or whatever?
HenryBemis
Even if they share the same (legal) name, there are always different names to be called, like a James@.. can be Jim@.. or Jimmy@..
GOTO95
I have a globally very rare last name and also own the .com for it, registered it in late 90's so that all of us would get their firstname@lastname.com email addresses. During the last 25 years exactly one (1) other than me ever wanted one and that was my younger son (he did use it exclusively).

So even if you think getting firstname@lastname.com is cool, just like I did/still do, I doubt most of your family really cares.

Also, Gmail/GSuite. Done. If it costs then good, you're not the product.

consumer451
Haha, yeah. That is the likely outcome. Especially since while tech-advanced, in the country of origin, ain't nobody trust anybody.

Just curious, how did you advertise this "service?" I am wondering about that aspect myself. [0]

Making this as obviously trustworthy as possible is probably the feature for which to optimize.

[0] That's why I was imagining a portal at surname.com, so that people could Google our name, sign up, with me in the loop for account approval.

NOTE: Who knows, this is an interesting legacy to leave behind, even if not popular now.

GOTO95
There's only ~25 of us and we used to get together for an extended family dinner once or twice a year - and I would just casually tell others that if they want their firstname@lastname.com email just ask me.

No one ever did.

Also I tried the portal thing - I put a simple webpage at https://lastname.com/ where it basically said to ask me for email accounts or web space... again, no one ever asked, not once. Not even my mother, she's been using the same Hotmail/Outlook/O365/whateveritsthisweek account since late 90s and doesn't want to move anywhere.

consumer451
Interesting. I wonder if in my case, being more forceful would work.

As in, gather their email addresses, create forwards with first@lastname.com, and give them biz cards, or DMs, with those addresses. Once you are able to share first@last.com as your email, it's hard to go back.

I think that's kinda how Stripe got sign-ups back in the day, according to HN lore. Just grab their laptop, and write the 3 lines of code. :)

I just want my fam to have the power of saying "my email is first@last." Maybe Reply As is not important. Just the to: alias would do.

I could probably manually scrape FB and make the aliases,[0] send them messages asking for their current email address, create the @lastname.com fwd, and meet a bunch more family that way.

Thank you for helping me get to this point.

Cheers!

[0] Namecheap allows 100 email fwds/domain for free. That's what I will do manually.

throwaway167
Prepare for them not to be interested.

Or tech support questions.

Or, given you state they're not close, for trust issues that may manifest one day when something goes wrong and they suspect their email.

But cool you have it. At least make an offer while explaining the points above.

krapp
family Mastodon account?
HenryBemis
Remember to add a catch-all for the 'other' accounts, so when someone emails Steve@surname.com instead of SteveN@surname.com, you will catch it and forward it.

I have gotten the domain of my surname 20+ years ago. I offered to make a mailbox to one cousin at the time and he said no. Reading your question I realized that I dodged a big bullet as he turned out to become one of the best guitar players to walk this earth and I wouldn't want to be his IT support for life, OR give him MY domain (and reverse roles - his domain - and I would be the 'cousin' with the loaner mailbox)