When I first went to get the domain for my main/personal email address, the .COM wasn't available...And I just didn't have an interest in the .NET or .ORG. So I went with .CC. I thought, "Hey it seems neat, slightly different (at the time) but not too weird, and its one letter shorter for people to type!" ...Or so I thought. Boy, has it been annoying with some people. Admittedly over the years it has become slightly easier, though there is the occasional exercise almost exactly as you described above, spelling it out as if to an infant.
I supposed the audience on HN is likely tech-focused, but even today (september 2016), there are so many "civilians" out there who are NOT exposed to non-.COM domains, its quite surprising. So many people that you would think have by now been exposed to some technology - hey they use advanced mobile phones, "smart tvs", etc. - and they look at you stunned if you bring up an email address with a TLD from outside the U.S. I'm living here in U.S., but if you want to really stump some people give them email addresses like the following:
* [email protected] * [email protected] * [email protected]
Its quite interesting!
"Hi, my name is Kate", "How do you spell that?". WTF!
And they get it wrong anyway. My partner's name is "Andreea", with a double 'e', and she always makes this fact very explicit, but in 95% of cases they will input it in their systems with a single 'e'.
My name is unusual, but it's one letter off from a usual name in my country. The bank has my correct name in their record, of course. But each time they email me, they use the wrong name. They sometimes even emit me new cards in the wrong name! When I complain, they ask very surprised and say that they are aware that the name in the system is what it is, but they thought it was a mistake, so they decided to emit the card in a different name! Unbelievable! This has happened with multiple banks.
I definitely took for granted how easy it is to say to someone "first initial + last name at major email provider . com", instead of "really easy first part at custom domain, wait let me give you the phonetic alphabet equivalent, no just the letter b, not actually the word bravo... . io - yes io, item oscar, it's the indian ocean. Yeah I'm sure it works"
Then pray you actually get the email.