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

[John Levine <[e-mail]>]

It appears that Scott Antipa  <[e-mail]> said:
>I'm mostly curious to hear if folks think there could be sufficient demand
>for this, even if it takes years to build up that demand and eventually
>update the infrastructure. Its not a hair on fire problem, just what I
>think would be a very nice change.

Hi.  I've had personal domains since about 1992, which makes me a fairly
but not unusually old timer here.

I'm pretty sure the answer to your question is "no". As other people
have pointed out, there is a great deal of value in giving different
people different addresses in your domain, largely so you can tell who
leaks them to spammers and turn them off.  I have given out at least
a thousand in mine.

I also believe that although the number of people with personal
domains seems large in nerd circles, it's insignificant in the world
at large and I cannot imagine that large mail systems would be willing
to change their software for a change like the one you propose.

The suggestion of a role address like the ones in RFC 2142 is not a bad
idea.  Dunno if anyone's likely to adopt it, but it won't break anything
and doesn't demand software upgrades.

R's,
John

PS: Apropos of RFC 2142, [e-mail] is me.  Some addresses are in
practice more standard than others.