i've known for more than a year that this day would have to come. now the deadline is mere days (perhaps only hours) away, and i still haven't quite prepared myself as fully as i ought...
today i mourn the passing of a part of me - the email address that has accompanied me in my digital travels for the past almost 12 years.
you see, early on in my explorations of the world wide web, i discovered that the free student account given to all UQ students wasn't going to be enough for me. how convenient that UQ also operated an external ISP. after some signing of forms and handing over of money, i became the owner of a uq.net.au email account.
as the years rolled on, i graduated from uni, and my internet needs outgrew what UQ's ISP (later known as uqconnect) was able to provide. i changed ISPs, but kept paying UQ $15/year to keep my address because
- i had already been using the address for years and i kinda liked it - it was shortish, fairly easy to remember, and attracted lots of spam.
- ok the spam wasn't a selling point, but the idea of not having to get all my contacts to update their address books, and me not having to update my subscriptions and accounts on all the mailing lists and websites i've signed up for over the years - that was worth $15 a year for me.
- plus uqconnect told me they would offer this mail forwarding indefinitely, as long as i kept paying the annual fee.
my world was at peace.
until one day i received the fateful news that "UQconnect recently reviewed its products and services. As part of this review, it was decided that UQconnect would no longer offer a Mail Forwarding service."
i had 2 months before they were going to cut me off.
i kicked up a stink. actually it was more like a please please please appeal to get an extension.
they gave me another year. that extra year expires imminently, and i shall soon be permanently disconnected from uqconnect. don't go looking for me there, cos i don't live there anymore. let's hope gmail doesn't ever decide to stop providing a (free) email service. i don't really fancy another change of email address during my remaining time on earth.
