[ietf-smtp] Make username optional in email addresses

Scott Antipa <scottantipa@gmail.com> Fri, 17 February 2023 20:26 UTC

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From: Scott Antipa <scottantipa@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2023 12:26:07 -0800
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Subject: [ietf-smtp] Make username optional in email addresses
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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