These are the details about what can be used, and what can't (see the section titled "Syntax") http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email_address Syntax The format of email addresses is local-part@domain where the local-part may be up to 64 characters long and the domain name may have a maximum of 253 characters - but the maximum 256 characters length of a forward or reverse path restricts the entire email address to be no more than 254 characters.[1] The formal definitions are in RFC 5322 (sections 3.2.3 and 3.4.1) and RFC 5321 - with a more readable form given in the informational RFC 3696[2] and the associated errata. [edit]Local part The local-part of the email address may use any of these ASCII characters RFC 5322 Section 3.2.3, RFC 6531 permits Unicode beyond the ASCII range: Uppercase and lowercase English letters (a–z, A–Z) (ASCII: 65-90, 97-122) Digits 0 to 9 (ASCII: 48-57) Characters !#$%&'*+-/=?^_`{|}~ (ASCII: 33, 35-39, 42, 43, 45, 47, 61, 63, 94-96, 123-126) Character . (dot, period, full stop) (ASCII: 46) provided that it is not the first or last character, and provided also that it does not appear two or more times consecutively (e.g. John..Doe@example.com is not allowed.). Special characters are allowed with restrictions. They are: Space and "(),:;<>@[\] (ASCII: 32, 34, 40, 41, 44, 58, 59, 60, 62, 64, 91-93) The restrictions for special characters are that they must only be used when contained between quotation marks, and that 3 of them (The space, backslash \ and quotation mark " (ASCII: 32, 92, 34)) must also be preceded by a backslash \ (e.g. "\ \\\""). Comments are allowed with parentheses, e.g. "john.smith(comment)@example.com", "john(comment).smith@example.com", and "joh(comment)n.smith@example.com" are all equivalent to "john.smith@example.com" International characters above U+007F are permitted by RFC 6531, though mail systems may restrict which characters to use when assigning local parts. A quoted string may exist as a dot separated entity within the local-part, or it may exist when the outermost quotes are the outermost characters of the local-part (e.g. abc."defghi".xyz@example.com or "abcdefghixyz"@example.com are allowed. Conversely, abc"defghi"xyz@example.com is not; neither is abc\"def\"ghi@example.com). Quoted strings and characters however, are not commonly used. RFC 5321 also warns that "a host that expects to receive mail SHOULD avoid defining mailboxes where the Local-part requires (or uses) the Quoted-string form". The local-part "postmaster" is treated specially - it is case-insensitive, and should be forwarded to the server's administrator. Technically all other local-parts are case sensitive, therefore jsmith@example.com and JSmith@example.com specify different mailboxes. However most organizations treat uppercase and lowercase letters as equivalent, and also do not allow use of the technically valid characters (space, ? and ^). Organizations are free to restrict the forms of their own email addresses as desired, e.g., Windows Live Hotmail, for example, only allows creation of email addresses using alphanumerics, dot (.), underscore (_) and hyphen (-).[3] Systems that send mail must be capable of handling outgoing mail for all valid addresses. Contrary to the relevant standards, some defective systems treat certain legitimate addresses as invalid and fail to handle mail to these addresses. Hotmail, for example, refuses to send mail to any address containing any of the following standards-permissible characters: !#$%*/?^`{|}~ -David Reed --------------------------------------------- "When you cannot make up your mind which of two evenly balanced courses of action you should take, choose the bolder." - William Joseph Slim Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail. -----Original Message----- From: listowners-bounces@rootsweb.com [mailto:listowners-bounces@rootsweb.com] On Behalf Of Diana Gale Matthiesen Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 10:10 PM To: Listowners-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LO] Please can someone help! Indeed, I've never seen that combo in a list address, either - or any email address for that matter. It should be technically possible, but I can't imagine why someone would want it. It sure "looks" funny. Diana From: JYoung6180@aol.com [mailto:JYoung6180@aol.com] Sent: Monday, April 09, 2012 9:38 PM To: DianaGM@dgmweb.net; Listowners-L@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [LO] Please can someone help! The difference is that a hyphen is used to separate two parts of a list address but never as a final character before the @ sign. I think that would appear to be out of balance sort of like an opening quote mark with no closing quote or an opening bracket with no closing bracket--you have the - to separate not followed by anything it is separating the first part from if that make any sense. Joan In a message dated 4/9/2012 9:32:27 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, DianaGM@dgmweb.net writes: A hyphen isn't that unusual. Over and above the -D, -L, -request, -admin versions, pretty much all the DNA lists are hyphenated, some more than once: http://lists.rootsweb.ancestry.com/index/other/DNA/ ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LISTOWNERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message
Apparently no one reads all the messages here. Marilyn first wrote: >Have you asked your subscriber if she's sending messages to the correct >address? > >_GACARROL-@rootsweb.com_ (mailto:GACARROL-@rootsweb.com) >_GAHARALS-@rootsweb.com_ (mailto:GAHARALS-@rootsweb.com) > Almost immediately, she also wrote: >Sorry, I goofed. There should be no dash. > >_GACARROL@rootsweb.com_ (mailto:GACARROL@rootsweb.com) >_GAHARALS@rootsweb.com_ (mailto:GAHARALS@rootsweb.com) Can we now get back to helping Christina rather than talking about whether dashed are part of List addresses? It was a typo. Lee Hoffman/KY TMG Tips: <http://www.tmgtips.com> My website: <http://www.tmgtips.com/lhoffman> A user of the best genealogy program, The Master Genealogist (TMG)