As the Sr. Internet Mail Administrator for AOL in 1995, we quickly learned that the only real way to validate an e-mail address was to send mail to it. Even tha

As the Sr. Internet Mail Administrator for AOL in 1995, we quickly learned that the only real way to validate an e-mail address was to send mail to it. Even that wasn’t guaranteed, but anything less was doomed to unexpected failure and misery. And this wasn’t a new lesson then. But at least we were smart enough to listen to the people who had learned that lesson before us. It is now over 25+years later, and I’m sad to see that many people seem to be bound and determined to force themselves to re-learn that lesson the hard way.