undefined | Better HN

0 pointschrismeller3y ago0 comments

Substitute “HTTP” with “SMTP” and you already have that today… SMTP in plain text isn’t generally used anymore, it’s always transported over TLS. Of course you can run whitelist-only, but how is that ever going to work?

SMTP is text based and we’ll defined, so I would also argue that the transport being “simpler” is nonsense.

0 comments

3 comments · 1 top-level

prox3y ago· 2 in thread

Whitelist is easier. If I added an mail of a friend in this system, we can communicate. Everything else goes blackhole.

Nothing is easy about email! Having worked for years just to get reliable in and outboxes is definitely not trivial. Also SMTP is a system out of your control if you want anything verified and actually delivered.

chrismellerOP3y ago

Of course whitelist is easier, but how valuable would your email be if you only allowed your friends to email you? Goodbye order confirmations, subscription reminders, recruiter emails, notifications…

r2_pilot3y ago

Sounds like a dream, really. And you could always have it be user-driven action, like "Copy this line and paste it into your email provider's whitelist", framing it as a positive win for the user since they have total control over who is allowed to communicate with them.

3 more replies

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse