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

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

Then, MTAs wouldn't need changing at all. It'd just be a relatively minor 
change to MUAs (MUAs would need changing anyway), and it'd have automatic 
backwards compatibility with non-compliant MUAs

On 17 February 2023 20:31:01 Scott Antipa <scottantipa@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello all, this is my first time posting to this group, apologies if it's 
> not the right format!
>
> I have an idea for a potential RFC related to the rules for legal email 
> addresses. I wanted to post here for feedback (I previously emailed with 
> Dave Crocker who gave me great background on email address rules and 
> suggested I post here).
>
> My idea for the RFC is that I'd like email addresses to have the username 
> be optional. For example, if you own bobsmith.com then your emai addressl 
> could be bobsmith.com instead of bob@bobsmith.com.
>
> I personally want this for my personal email address and I would think a 
> ton of other people would find it fun, ergonomic, and simpler! It would 
> encourage the use of personal email addresses over @gmail etc email 
> addresses. I also think this will encourage people to use email more 
> frequently because once everyone understands that this syntax is possible, 
> they won't have to spend a ton of time searching on someone's website for 
> the correct email address (support@domain.com vs sales@domain.com etc). 
> They can just assume that the website owner supports email directly to 
> domain.com.
>
> As Dave mentioned to me, this is of course a gigantic change which would 
> require changes to all the parsers out there in the wild. I'm not expecting 
> to just get a thumbs up here immediately. But I'd like to spark a 
> conversation and get feedback.
>
> Thanks everyone,
> Scott Antipa
> scottantipa.com
> _______________________________________________
> ietf-smtp mailing list
> ietf-smtp@ietf.org
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf-smtp