To think that people should know what an underscore is?

[ThatPeskyUnderscore]

A few weeks ago, I was given the number of this digital artist from a Facebook friend as I was looking to commission a piece of digital art for my mum. We chatted over WhatsApp, the sketch photos she sent on there were great, and I sent her the sum we had previously agreed upon.

Last week, she asked for my email address (I've got a first_last one) so she could send me a google drive link to the file. I typed it out on WhatsApp and thought that was that. Checked my inbox later that night? No art. Checked it the next day? Still no art there.

I sent her a message asking her if she'd sent it? She said yes. Asked her if she'd sent it to the right address? Yes again. So I asked her if she could check again and she said she'd check when she's free. Two days later, I sent another message asking if she's checked if she'd sent it. She sent me a photo of the email and apparently she'd sent it to first-last!

Told her mine contained an underscore and she told me that her iPad's keyboard didn't have that character. She then copied and pasted the email from my earlier message and I finally got it! Told her thanks but that message has been stuck at 'one tick' for days. I love the piece she drew and was thinking of getting another for myself but if she's 'one ticked' me (think I'm blocked as her picture no longer shows either) then I'm out of luck. And to think all was going swimmingly before the bloody underscore came into play.

@Ponoka7

When you asked her to recheck, did you say please etc? Or have your messages come across as rude/blunt?

Word for word, here's our conversation.

Me: Hi! Have you sent the email? I'm not sure if my email provider is acting up or something but I can't seem to find it!

Her: Yes I sent it last night. Check you spam folder maybe x

Me: Still no luck. Did you send it to email address?

Her: Yes I definitely did x

Me: Sorry for the trouble but could you double check? My inbox seems to be working fine and I was wondering if there was a possibility you mistyped?

Her: I'll check it when I'm free x

Me: OK thanks!

2 days later

Me: Hi again. I still haven't received the email. Could you please check your sent folder? Thanks.

Maybe I didn't sound the most friendly there but I did pay extra for it to be done by Monday (which to be fair was when she 'sent' the first email) and by the time I sent the last message it was late Friday!

Another thing about underscores is that in messages especially sometimes it looks like part of the hyperlink and I have had someone else try to send me emails with a space in my address instead...

I get enraged when people call this a hashtag # it is not

@PassMeTheWotsits

I get enraged when people call this a hashtag # it is not

What is it then?!

It's the hashtag symbol

Knows as number sign or hash

It’s a hash symbol. Adding it to the front of something that you can then use to track that subject on say Twitter or insta makes in to a hashtag.

Oh so it's the word "tag" that's making you angry? Because it is a "hash"

Our email addresses if emailing internally at work are #emailaddress. The amount of people I hear saying “yes, send it to hashtag email address please” in that instance it is not a hashtag. It’s a hash symbol.

Underscore only came into my vocabulary when computers came into my life. It's not remotely unusual for people new to technology not to know what one is.

Lol I get ya

My first name is hyphenated and I’ve had people ask what that is. And once, how to spell it

It’s a bit like anything that you don’t know until you do? Bit odd she’s never come across this but not exactly a massive issue.

Now if anyone can tell me how to achieve a strike through on MN using the iPad Pro then I will also have learned something today. - -oh how I miss a little PA aside- -

YANBU and for a digital artist you would hope a working knowledge of your chosen medium would be a basic requirement.

At work, I frequently have people specify to me which letters in their email addresses should be capitalised, and they Will. Not. Have. It. if I politely mention it makes no difference!
I’ve also had clients just make up their own approximation of our email address which they send potentially sensitive personal information to, and get irate when we don’t receive it.

@saraclara

Underscore only came into my vocabulary when computers came into my life. It's not remotely unusual for people new to technology not to know what one is.

Even people working on manual typewriters back in the ‘60s would use underscores. And before that too.

YANBU. I'd expect someone producing digital artworks to have some basic understanding of a keyboard tbh and an underscore is fairly basic.

Now that I've read her responses, though, I'm thinking I'd probably not try to do further business with her if I were you. She isn't concerned with trying to resolve the issue for you (her saying 'check your spam filter' should have been followed with something along the lines of 'if it isn't there I can try to re-send/ double check the email address/ whatever' Some kind of acknowledgement that she's not successfully delivered what you've paid for and would like to make sure that you receive it. 'I'll check when I'm free' then not responding further for two days isn't really acceptable either)

You are unreasonable to have an underscore in your email address and should have anticipated that it could cause confusion.

@MasterBeth

You are unreasonable to have an underscore in your email address and should have anticipated that it could cause confusion.

What do you suggest instead? As the hyphen or dot were already taken.

I would be more peed off that I had paid her for work and she didn’t seem too bothered as to whether I had received it. Or any urgency in resolving!

Also underscores shouldn’t be too confusing and are definitely on an iPad!

Some people are idiots.

I have a dot in my personal email address, twice I've given it to someone saying firstname dot surname and they've used the actual word dot when they've tried to email me. Now I say full stop.

Well we all know different stuff I guess. I’m constantly surprised by what people know or don’t know.

@ShaunaTheSheep

You have to go into the special characters keyboard to find the _ so it's possible she couldn't find it. YABU

Not on my keyboard you don't, it's there next to the number 0 on the same key as the hyphen

is the pound sign to my American colleagues. I can understand them not having £ on their keyboards, but that doesn't make # either £ or lb to me.

It's formally an octothorp, but few people will know what you're on about if you say that, unless you're weird like me and read books on the history of punctuation.