: Should we date our e-mail addresses I have a website I'm administering for a volunteer organization that has a big staff turn over (annually - the team working in 2014 is almost completely

@Mendez628

Having an address like webmaster2013@address.com has so many wrong sides, that just reading it makes me feel bad. Feels like clerk1, secretary13, assistan8, just_passing_guy17.

One of the main problems is that the user feels, everyday that he is just temporary there, which adds up to not relating to the office/jog he has to do. It also lowers the self-esteem, it feels like a number on the organization, not a person.

From the outside part, it feels like you are dealing with just a temporary intern, who doesn't know much and is there just for short time, that means lees respect to him, less patience and worst results at the end of the day. Plus if somebody has to deal with that webmaster2013@address.com on december, what do you think is the feeling? What happens if I don't solve the problem before he leaves? Am' I going to have to explain everything again?

Of course that kind of situation is not just related to solve problems, it affects almost any kind of interaction.

Use specific addresses for each person. If the position is relevant, have them use things like webmaste@example.com, but if they can use jhon.doe@example.com, do that, it always has much better feeling for everybody.

You can also use alias, have permanent account like webmaster, admin a,d so on, and each year, change the redirections. If you use this method, you can have copies of the redirected mails, so for the permanent accounts, you may have all the emails stored, doesn't matter who used it.

About spam, use spam protection software, well configured should really help you. On the account where I have spamassasin, I almost don't get any spam.

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@Turnbaugh106

My experience has been to use a "generic"alias for position-based email (e.g. webmaster, admin, sales, etc.) and send it to the address of whomever has those duties at the time. You can often add more than one address to the alias list, so if you need to keep records of all incoming messages you can send them to an additional box that you maintain control over.

This is helpful when you have volunteers who use email outside your domain and you want to provide them with an "official" email access, or if you have a high turnover rate and don't necessarily need to tell everyone that there's someone new in that position.

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@Correia994

It is best to use just webmaster@address.com. This way, webmasters every year will have a record of, and will easily be able to refer to, historical mails if needed. Volunteer organizations, more often than not, need to keep records, and changing the email ID every year is unthinkable!

If you want to attribute the work of each webmaster to them as and when they change, you can simply send out a mail to your subscribers or whoever saying "Hi, I'm the new webmaster and my name is _" every time the change happens.

As for spam, if webmasters won't deal with it, who will?

Go for it!

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