I said ‘@’ there, not ‘at’. Not there, no, that’s definitely ‘at’ – and so’s that bit.
If you ask me for my email address, what I’ll give you in response depends on the context. If that context is that we’re chatting in a pub (so there has been some drinking) and perhaps you want to forward a link to some really funny video clip to me, there is a specific address I’ll give you. I will say:
“at dot co dot uk at dot co dot uk at dot co dot uk”
The address is perfectly real and valid in its proper form, but typed out like that it doesn’t look right – which is how it comes across when I say it.
Which is why I have it, and why I do it.
It amuses me to see the look of confusion on people’s faces when I start the address with ‘at’ because they expect the at symbol – @ – to be somewhere in the middle. And then I seem to be following it with dot co dot uk, which they expect to come at the end. This has led to a couple of very entertaining (for me) conversations.
(The fact that nobody I’ve given the address to in that context has ever emailed me is a bonus – but that’s beside the point.)
Today, I had a light bulb moment, and registered an equally silly domain name to use as a web address. From this point onwards, if I’m asked the address of my website in a pub, I’ll be able to answer with:
“www dot co dot uk dot www dot co dot uk”
This should cause equal amounts of confusion, and therefore amusement for me.
For the moment, the correct form of that address points to this very site (although if you click on any links to actual posts the address is corrected). At some point, I might put a separate site there.
