So I got hold of a domain that shows my exact full name. I thought it would be useful for showing up as “professional” when working in IT and sending resumes.
I got some mail forwarded using the domain registrar. I also made a small static website, which only has hello world for now but soon will get the contents filled up.
But then… what? I suppose I can host anything I want, but then there’s the whole “real name - gotta look professional” aspect that makes me weary of hosting a Lemmy instance, for example, when the domain without my name attached wouldn’t.
I suppose having personal domains were cool in the 90s where people were barely learning about “the internets”. Not so anymore?
Is there a usefulness in having a domain name with your real name attached on this age?
It’s good for email and personal sites (those aren’t dead, but they’re more popular for people that either write a lot or are self-employed). I’d only use a personal domain for self hosted apps if the users are just you and your family.
For something like hosting Lemmy, with users you don’t know, I wouldn’t use the same domain as where you host your other personal stuff, even if it’s not your name.
Use a second domain for your less professional stuff?
It is a bit of gimic though, and I suspect rather than coming across as professional on your resume, it will probably be more of a “huh, cool” kinda thing?
I have issues where companies won’t let me register because ‘you can’t have your last name as the @lastname’. They don’t trust it or whatever…I dunno
They have no issues trying to mail me their spam fliers but won’t let me use it to communicate with them. Kinda fucky…but yes it is more of a that’s cool moment.
Lol, I often get a lot of confirmations on if my email address is right whenever I am in contact with any customer service… I use a catch-all on lastname[dot]com.
“Is your email really ‘nameofservice@lastname•com’?”
Glad to see I’m not the only one doing this. It definitely leads to a lot of small talk about my email domain, but I’ve never run into a situation yet where I couldn’t sign up for something. My personal favorite is when reluctantly providing an email for something I don’t care about I can spout out something like “blockthishottrash@mydomain.tld”. That’s lead to some fun reactions.
I use a “real name” domain. My last name ends in the letters “in”, so I bought a
.indomain, such that the domain name is my last name with a dot in it.Can’t honestly recommend that approach. It’s a cute gimmick, but when non-technical people ask for your email address and it doesn’t end in a TLD they recognize, their heads explode. I usually give out my gmail address.
There are multiple of us! I did the exact same thing, except for using my own name. Mine ends in .re of Réunion. I think it’s fun so I’m keeping it.
For sharing it offline I have a big text widget on my phone. They usually get it if they can read it, but not if I spell it out.
