Friday, August 1, 2008

Changing people's email address on them: Always cool.

From an email sent today by Ronald C. Bonig, GWU Vice President and Chief Information Officer. I'm 90% certain this email address change was not necessary to convert to Gmail:
As you might have heard, we have introduced a third party email system for students and alumni - we will now be utilizing the Google Mail interface. This is a vital component of ensuring a successful academic and social experience for our students. All student accounts will change from NetID@gwu.edu to NetID@gwmail.gwu.edu.
Quiz: Which of these is the worst idea?

A) Changing people's email addresses on them.
B) Making people's email addresses longer.
C) Using both "GW" and "GWU" in an email address.
D) All of the above.

18 comments:

Unknown said...

Adam-

While I agree with you that gwmail.gwu.edu is perhaps the stupidest extension they could have chosen (mail.gwu.edu) would have sufficed -- it was necessary to change the email addresses, since they are keeping the old colonial mail servers intact.

I also feel that any negative of changing email addresses - such as the email I received last night informing me that Listserv Admins need to change all the email addresses on their listservs in order for people to be able to send to them - is greatly outweighed by the fact that CMail sucks and GMail is awesome.

Anonymous said...

hmm..I don't know about this. It looks awkward, but if it works better than cmail then I'm for it.

AdamGreen said...

Zero objection to switching from Cmail to Gmail. None, nada, zip.

I was only questioning the necessity of changing everyone's email addresses. I know of workplaces that switched to Gmail servers and kept the exact same email addresses.

I'm curious about this line, Tim: "it was necessary to change the email addresses, since they are keeping the old colonial mail servers intact." Can you explain more, for the layman? Thanks.

Unknown said...

Last I had heard (which I think is still accurate) faculty, staff, and research oriented positions were not being switched over to GMail because Google cannot guarantee the data 100% - which cmail can (it is dually backed up).

That is what i meant by keeping the cmail servers intact ... does that make sense?

James said...

At least it'll throw off spam and scam for awhile.

AdamGreen said...

Tim, actually it doesn't clear things up. Are you sure they are mutually exclusive?

Denis B said...

The reasons for switching to a second-level domain for e-mail are bollocks. If the faculty addresses are going to stay on @gwu.edu domain and students will move to @gwmail.gwu.edu then it will create a lot of confusion. All GWU had to do was to change the mail record of the domain to point to Google's servers. Changing that record would not have any effect on the content of CMail servers. GWU simply joined the list of ultra-paranoid schools who do not trust their mailing records to Google and create awkward sub-domains to handle mail.

Megan said...

D). I'm not whining because I know it works better than cmail, but it is a pain. Oh well!

Anonymous said...

but does it really matter? don't emails sent to @gwu.edu addresses get forwarded to the @gwmail.gwu.edu address? or is that only for a certain period of time?

Anonymous said...

As far as I can tell, you can still send an e-mail to ...@gwu.edu and it will go to the new GMail-type account if that's the one you want to use...

Anonymous said...

I think it is the most stupidest thing GW has done in a while. I think we should officially pettiton it. I mean come on! imagine "@gwmail.gwu.edu" on your business card or resume !! we should all move before its too late !

Emily Berger said...

To anonymous: an email gw sent out about the switch said there would be a "six month transition period" during which I assume all mail will be forwarded, not sure what happens after that though...

Anonymous said...

after that, @gwu.edu stops existing and any mail sent to it just gets bounced back

Anonymous said...

D. i don't like the new email address at all.

Bow Tie Guy said...

According to the Hatchet our 'gwu.edu' emails should forward until we graduate just like the old system where we would lose GW email all together.

http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2008/06/13/News/Student.EMail.Addresses.Will.Change.With.Switch.To.Gmail-3384134.shtml

Anonymous said...

Does this really surprise anyone GW seems to be the king of idiotic moves. Ever since they cut the laser light show from CI I've really lost faith in the administration

Anonymous said...

I think its an ok idea because of the extra space and more familiar interface as a gmail user already...what is NOT ok or in anyway helpful is implementing the change right after the new freshman have created their emails and are now worried about not getting emails etc. plus as a freshman how am I supposed to transfer all of the emails I've gotten this summer to the new email system without forwarding every single one of them? Not a smart move.

Anonymous said...

Why does nobody here seem to care that all of their school-related email will be stored on Google's servers? Isn't that the worst part of this? I assume it's the reason they only chose the students and not the faculty - because your data and privacy is less important!?