WLM sends your custom nicknames along with emails...

by Derpington Jul 15, 2010 6:35AM PDT

And this almost got me a beating from an angry black dude.

I don't like this guy and gave him a racist nickname (screen name) on MSN just for fun, he would never know that right? It's just a screen name for the MSN client on my PC right?

Well, NO!

I'll explain:

I've never had to send him an email, until yesterday. I sent the email via WLM like usual, but when me, the black dude and a couple of other guys from my class meet, the guy was pretty angry because apparently, in the mail I sent him he found the racist word because this POS program sends the nickname in the "To:" field of the email (i verified it by sending an email to another mail address I own, I gave myself a nickname via messenger and in the email in the TO: field the nickname was visible).

This is stupid beyond belief, I can't believe MS implemented this in their email client. I feel like the victim of a bad joke, like someone browsed through my HDD and posted my porn folder online saying "hey everyone, check out what your friend looks at!". Now all my friends believe that I'm a racist thanks to some utterly ******** feature that should have never implemented in any program ever.

That being said, how do I disable this "feature"? I don't want to change client, I tried Thunderbird but it can't manage all the folders on the msn account.

Discussion is locked

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Addendum.

by Derpington Jul 15, 2010 6:41AM PDT

Oh and by the way, I'm not a racist (I have a couple of black friends actually), I just don't like this one black dude, who of course, since in my class there are a bunch of black guys, he told everyone "hey, did you knew that he calls you a ****** behind your back and is a racist?". Talk about embarassing. All of this thanks to some poorly implemented integration between WLMail and WLMessenger.

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Well,

by MarkFlax Forum moderator Jul 15, 2010 9:58PM PDT

You "gave him a racist nickname (screen name) on MSN".

You say you're not a racist, but the evidence against that would appear to be visible. Whether you are or not, using a racist entry like you have will, no doubt, be interpreted for what it displays. Disliking someone would not, in my opinion, be sufficient for giving them a racist name. If you dislike a white person, would you give them a white racist name?

You will find that most, if not all, email clients offer this "Nickname", or "Display name" option in their contact settings or Address Books. I can't say with WLM but I suspect the same option is there.

I've never used MSN Messenger but I have to assume that the same option is there as well. Or delete that entry and try again.

Mark

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It's a standard feature...

by John.Wilkinson Jul 15, 2010 11:04PM PDT

Most email clients and webmail interfaces will automatically replace, the email address with the person's name or prepend it to the email address. Since most users remember a person's name, but not necessarily the person's email address, this enables both the sender and other recipients to easily identify the individual the email was sent to. This may seem trivial when communicating with close friends whom you chat with often, but consider the office memo sent from user3750375@example.com to you and user97365@example.com; it would be nice to easily recognize that your coworker sent the email and CCed it to your boss, asking why your work has not been submitted.

This cannot be readily disabled in most clients, including WLM, so it is always a good idea to name contacts wisely.

Regards,
John

WLM sends your custom nicknames along with emails...

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