Valdis writes: > That's one *TALL* order for a useful e-mail address. Not really. A great many people never use e-mail for anything except exchanging messages with friends and relatives. > That means that you can't join a mailing list for > (say) cancer survivors, or for people with persian > cats, or for your church, or for other immigrants > from the same country as you... because then your > address might be published. Perhaps ... but most people never join mailing lists, so this is not a problem for the bulk of the Internet community. > Sort of limits the usefulness of e-mail. Hardly. Most people don't use mailing lists. > That means that you can't use the Internet > to buy things at a site that wants an e-mail > address to send you things like shipping confirmations. Why not? Many companies will not publish or share your address. > For that matter, even if you're NOT on a mailing > list, and don't purchase things online, you have > to worry that *NONE* of your correspondents use a > certain worm-prone MUA ... Spare me the angry-young-male syndrome. The vast majority of people using Outlook Express (I assume that's the MUA you're reluctant to name) are not infected by worms. > ... if *they* get hit by a worm that finds your e-mail > address ... _If_ they get hit by a worm. But they generally do not get hit by worms. > Sort of limits the usefulness of e-mail to a > ridiculous level. Most people seem to get a lot out of e-mail despite spam. Most people don't receive that much spam, unless their addresses are widely disseminated and/or published. > So it's not safe to join a mailing list, it's not > safe to use it for any e-commerce, and it's not safe > to use it to communicate with the 85% of the > people who use the problem MUA. Only the first point is valid, and even that depends on the mailing list. E-commerce is not generally a problem, with reputable merchants, and the "problem MUA" is not a problem for the vast majority of its users. Your hyperbole is unwarranted and casts doubt upon your credibility for those who know better.