NAC: Seeking advice on email address

[Andrew Buc]

I just got my own domain, not in order to set up a website, but so I 
can keep a stable email address even if I change ISP's. (Thanks to all 
who responded to my earlier question about getting a domain.) I've set 
it up so incoming mail at the address at my domain is forwarded on to 
my real POP3 mailbox, and I download it into my mail client, same as I 
always have.

When I set up the domain, I made my address there ab at mydomain.com (not 
the real domain name), just to save myself a couple keystrokes every 
time I type it.

As a test, I sent emails from my new address to a few friends and asked 
them to reply to verify that the forwarding works, which it apparently 
does. However, one friend of mine said he almost deleted my email--the 
very short "ab@" part led him to think it was spam. In your view, are 
many people likely to have this reaction, or is it just my friend's 
idiosyncrasy? When I decide to go to the new address across the board, 
I could send the rest of my friends an email from my old address, and 
that would get around that issue. But sometimes I legitimately email 
people who have never heard of me before. I haven't had this problem in 
the past, and "abuc@" is pretty short, but it isn't as short as "ab@".

At this point, it wouldn't be a big deal to change the address. Farther 
down the road, it would be. Your thoughts? Thank you.