4 ms·

> frankly if the message can't handle at least a few hours delay then email probably isn't the right medium for it. This may have been the case in the mid-90s,

> frankly if the message can't handle at least a few hours delay then email probably isn't the right medium for it. This may have been the case in the mid-90s, but it is certainly not the case today. I frequently receive emails that require immediate attention, whether from my employer, my bank, or any number of other notifications. Normal email users expect emails to be delivered in seconds, not hours.

CaptSpify 9y ago
Then normal users need to adjust their expectations. Email has never been assumed to be immediate. Iirc, its even in the spec
- Spivak 9y ago
  Of course not, like most things email is best-effort. But it's hard to blame users when for the last 10 years we've been able to send/receive email in <10s.
  - syshum 9y ago
    I feel sorry for you if you base everything on user expectations... I sure hope you do not work in professional IT if that is the case because if you do you must be one stress out person...
sigstoat 9y ago
> Normal email users expect emails to be delivered in seconds, not hours. their expectations are unreasonable. gmail, etc don't even manage that much of the time, let alone guarantee it.
- Spivak 9y ago
  Sure, everything is best-effort on the web but <10s delivery is pretty much the norm now.
  - zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 9y ago
    Except email has nothing to do with the web?
- jcrites 9y ago
  Most email on the Internet is delivered all the way from the original sender to the end recipient in seconds. Many user experiences require this, such as password reset interactions or email address verification upon new account creation. When email isn't nearly instantaneous, it's definitely upsetting to users and a violation of the norm. Email is only not instantaneous in well-managed systems when one of the parties is experiencing an operational problem of some kind. There are exceptions to this, such as large scale marketing systems that deliberately send at a slow rate to avoid overwhelming recipients. Once deciding to actually send a message, though -- if not rate-limited by the receiver -- messages tend to arrive in the inbox in moments. Email isn't that complicated of a protocol, when you get down to the mechanics of email delivery. Loading a web page is orders of magnitude more complicated than sending an email; there's no reason why sending an email would need to take longer.

CaptSpify 9y ago

Then normal users need to adjust their expectations. Email has never been assumed to be immediate. Iirc, its even in the spec

Spivak 9y ago
Of course not, like most things email is best-effort. But it's hard to blame users when for the last 10 years we've been able to send/receive email in <10s.
- syshum 9y ago
  I feel sorry for you if you base everything on user expectations... I sure hope you do not work in professional IT if that is the case because if you do you must be one stress out person...

sigstoat 9y ago

> Normal email users expect emails to be delivered in seconds, not hours. their expectations are unreasonable. gmail, etc don't even manage that much of the time, let alone guarantee it.

Spivak 9y ago
Sure, everything is best-effort on the web but <10s delivery is pretty much the norm now.
- zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 9y ago
  Except email has nothing to do with the web?
jcrites 9y ago
Most email on the Internet is delivered all the way from the original sender to the end recipient in seconds. Many user experiences require this, such as password reset interactions or email address verification upon new account creation. When email isn't nearly instantaneous, it's definitely upsetting to users and a violation of the norm. Email is only not instantaneous in well-managed systems when one of the parties is experiencing an operational problem of some kind. There are exceptions to this, such as large scale marketing systems that deliberately send at a slow rate to avoid overwhelming recipients. Once deciding to actually send a message, though -- if not rate-limited by the receiver -- messages tend to arrive in the inbox in moments. Email isn't that complicated of a protocol, when you get down to the mechanics of email delivery. Loading a web page is orders of magnitude more complicated than sending an email; there's no reason why sending an email would need to take longer.