Don't Break E-Mail To Save It

from the solutions... dept

Vipul Prakash from Cloudmark is clearly a bit biased when it comes to anti-spam filtering methods - but he still makes some good points in an essay saying that we shouldn't break email to save it. He points out that most anti-spam solutions require some change that somehow "breaks" the way email should work, and suggests that there are three rules any email system should abide by: "(1) Ability to send and receive e-mail from a stranger. (Whitelisting, payment systems, and challenge/response break this rule.) (2) Ability to send and receive pseudo-anonymous e-mail. (Domain-based authentication breaks this rule.) (3) E-mail should be free. (Payment systems break this rule.)"
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Precision Blogger, 24 Jul 2003 @ 10:47am

    Nonsense, Email does not have to be free

    I'm willing to read any email, provided the sender will pay me a dollar to read it. When I exchange email with friends, we'll all just about break even.

    - The Precision Blogger
    precision-blogging.blogspot.com

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.