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

[Dave Crocker <[e-mail]>]

On 2/17/2023 12:26 PM, Scott Antipa wrote:
> As Dave mentioned to me

To prime the thread a bit more, here's the technical substance of the 
note I sent to Scott...

> -------- Forwarded Message --------
>
> ...
>
> Less for convenience, and more for the ability to query the DNS for 
> person-specific information, there have periodically been suggestions 
> for a convention for turning a regular email address into a form that 
> can be used to query the DNS.  So, for example, permit 
> scottantipa.gmail.com as a query for per-user information. Clearly the 
> DNS has no problem with that, syntactically.  However the consensus 
> has been that it wouldn't scale very well.
>
> While the example you gave was for a simple, two-part domain name, the 
> construct has to work for any arbitrary domain name.  And it has to 
> work for potentially billions of users. DNS servers tend not to be 
> built to handle the resulting query rate.
>
> A consideration for any proposal is to have a clear and compelling 
> value proposition, which is likely to motivate developers, operators 
> and users.  The barrier is especially high for modifying an existing 
> service, because the modification generally needs to work in a way 
> that does not affect, or at least does not hurt, that installed base.
>
> What you are proposing needs to cause all email address parsers to 
> change.  Modifying the entire email infrastructure to support this 
> change is unlikely to happen, even with strong incentives -- take a 
> look at the decades-long delays that have occurred for DNSSec, DANE, 
> and IPv6, each of which has quite a strong value proposition.
>
> While your proposal has the intuitive appeal of a simplification, in 
> the example use you gave, the practical benefit of it seems small. 
> First, there is likely (almost) no current base of domain owners who 
> would benefit from the capability.  Even the small market niche of 
> technical folk who own domains typically want multiple email addresses 
> to work for the domains they own. Then balance this the global, 
> systems-level changes that would be needed to support it.
>
> Working through incentives and downsides is a hassle, especially in 
> the face of the enthusiasm that comes with thinking up a technical 
> proposal.  Worse is that it's a realm of guesses about human behavior.
>
> ...

-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net
mast:@[e-mail]