I still wonder why we can't just do IM over SMTP. There's already tonnes of volume, the latency is basically good enough, and the format has lots of room for pr

I still wonder why we can't just do IM over SMTP. There's already tonnes of volume, the latency is basically good enough, and the format has lots of room for progressive enhancement through the addition of parts and formats. As someone who administrates a small SMTP peering group with a friend, I'm constantly baffled by the reinvention of the wheel. Presence could be easily signalled by messages which degrade gracefully. i.e. send a human-readable email that says you're online or offline, with a presence header verified by DKIM/SPF/DMARC, or you could even revive Finger. Use whatever protocol between the mailserver and the client.