Re: Localized mail servers, global scope

[Tony Finch <dot () dotat at>]

On Thu, 23 Jun 2005 Michael.Dillon () btradianz com wrote:
> Perhaps this is the time to find a new general solution rather than
> continuing to tack extensions on the existing email service?

None of the email replacement proposals I have seen are likely to get any
significant deployment because none of them is sufficiently better than
SMTP. Without a compelling incentive it won't happen because network
effects strongly favour staying with what the majority of people use.

> I don't have the answers but I think the 10 years of failure to put a
> dent in spam have shown beyond the shadow of a doubt that Internet email
> is broken by design and bandaids are not going to fix this, no matter
> how many different bandaids are applied.

One of the most important features of email is that it allows you to
receive messages from people you have not previously communicated with.
That, combined with the fact that email is cheap, makes spam inevitable
whatever technical infrastructure you use. It is not a failure of SMTP.

Another way to see that spam is not caused by weaknesses in SMTP is by
observing that it occurs in other protocols: usenet spam, blog spam, wiki
spam, spim, etc. Wherever there is an audience there will be spam.

Tony.
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