[Last-Call] Re: [Emailcore] Re: Re: draft-ietf-emailcore-as-28 ietf last call Secdir review

[John R Levine <[e-mail]>]

On Thu, 30 Apr 2026, Richard Barnes wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 30, 2026 at 10:48 AM John R Levine <[e-mail]> wrote:
>> Unencrypted mail has been part of SMTP as long as
>> there has been SMTP,
>
> "Unencrypted HTTP has been part of HTTP as long as there has been HTTP."
>
> And yet we do not require that people continue to support it.

Really, mail is not the web.  As I said a few messages ago, every mail 
software maintainer and mail operator I have talked to agrees that they
still need unencrypted mail to talk to the long tail, to the extent that 
if we say otherwise they will just ignore us.

Why are we so determined to publish a spec that breaks decades of 
interoperation?  For that long tail, the alternative to unencrypted mail 
isn't encrypted mail, it's no mail.

R's,
John