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Re: [ietf-smtp] Make username optional in email addresses

Paul Smith <paul@pscs.co.uk> Sun, 26 February 2023 09:42 UTC

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Date: Sun, 26 Feb 2023 09:37:10 +0000
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To: John Levine <johnl@taugh.com>, ietf-smtp@ietf.org
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From: Paul Smith <paul@pscs.co.uk>
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Subject: Re: [ietf-smtp] Make username optional in email addresses
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On 24/02/2023 14:50, John Levine wrote:
> It appears that Paul Smith  <paul@pscs.co.uk> said:
>> -=-=-=-=-=-
>>
>> Why not just have a specific email address which means that.
>>
>> In the same way that Web browsers will "autocomplete" a URL of
>> "example.com" to "https://www.example.com", a compliant email client could
>> "autocomplete" an email address of "example.com" to "something@example.com"
>>
>> The "something" could be fixed, or discovered via DNS or similar
> I am having trouble understanding why it would be a good idea to add a UI feature
> that is at most a minor convenience to the 0.0001% of mail users with vanity domains,
> and baffling and wrong for everyone else.

FWIW, I never suggested it was a good idea to have 'no-username email 
addresses'. Just that, if you are going to have them, it is probably 
better to do it in the MUA rather than the SMTP protocol/message format 
standards themselves  (which would require MUA as well as MTA/MSA 
changes and changes to lots of other software which process RFC 5322 
messages)

Paul

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