On 4/29/22 22:42, Phillip Hallam-Baker wrote:
It will certainly be an unpopular thing to say but I will say it: Protocols wear out over time.
We have patched SMTP again and again and again and at this point there are more patches than protocol and there are holes we simply can't fix because we have reached the limit.
And yet, replacing it is difficult because of the vast number of installations, implementations, and mail domains for which service would have to be reconfigured, and the disruption of various kinds that would likely be caused. Even if the replacement were far superior and suitable for everyone's existing use cases. Also, replacing it seems likely to have the extremely undesirable side-effect of putting email even more in the hands of a few Big Companies than it already is.
(I also think I disagree with you about SMTP, but it might be just a matter of differences between what we're each lumping into "SMTP")
Keith
p.s. Things have gotten so far out of hand that when I fill out
some web form and type in my correct email address, the web form
often tries to correct my input by changing the domain name to
that of some 900 pound gorilla email service. Or when you try to
send mail and it fails to be delivered because of a spam filter,
the recipient often tells you to get an account with their service
provider.
