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So every website everywhere on the internet which has anything to do with email will have to consider each and every hack which every email provider has done wh

So every website everywhere on the internet which has anything to do with email will have to consider each and every hack which every email provider has done which deviates from Internet email standards, ever, before sending an email or registering an account or anything... or else the website is at fault if these standards-violations leads to security issues? Fuck that shit! Oh... We should only give Google and Gmail a free pass because they’re big? No, fuck that too. That’s not how internet standards and internet emailing works. It’s level playing field because everyone plays by the rules, and when you cause fuck-ups like this, it’s entirely on your base. Gmail is the one who needs fixing, not everyone else.

koolba 8y ago
I don’t see how this very pleasant user friendly feature of Gmail is an issue. IIRC, email addresses are not even case insensitive. So foo@example.com isn’t necessarily FOO@example.com. Websites should be validating email addresses by sending them an email with an (expiring quickly) link and having the user act upon it. Short of that there’s no way for you to know that a user controls a given address.
- josteink 8y ago
  Gmail enables a high-risk non-standard feature to 100% of its users, while optimistically only 0.00000001% uses it. That’s grossly irresponsible. Let the users who needs aliases enable them explicitly and manage them themselves.
  - koolba 8y ago
    I’m clearly biased working in tech but from my anecdata the gmail “address hacks” are used by significantly more than 0.00000001% of the population. And not just because that’s 1 out 10 billion people. Regardless that’s no excuse for shitty software and websites that don’t follow standards. Literally anything before the @ sign is fair game to be interpreted by the email server as it sees fit. That include emojis, case sensitive names, and most punctuation. Assuming email addresses are unique because the text is unique is simply wrong.

koolba 8y ago

I don’t see how this very pleasant user friendly feature of Gmail is an issue. IIRC, email addresses are not even case insensitive. So foo@example.com isn’t necessarily FOO@example.com. Websites should be validating email addresses by sending them an email with an (expiring quickly) link and having the user act upon it. Short of that there’s no way for you to know that a user controls a given address.

josteink 8y ago
Gmail enables a high-risk non-standard feature to 100% of its users, while optimistically only 0.00000001% uses it. That’s grossly irresponsible. Let the users who needs aliases enable them explicitly and manage them themselves.
- koolba 8y ago
  I’m clearly biased working in tech but from my anecdata the gmail “address hacks” are used by significantly more than 0.00000001% of the population. And not just because that’s 1 out 10 billion people. Regardless that’s no excuse for shitty software and websites that don’t follow standards. Literally anything before the @ sign is fair game to be interpreted by the email server as it sees fit. That include emojis, case sensitive names, and most punctuation. Assuming email addresses are unique because the text is unique is simply wrong.