3 ms·

This was my original idea to solve the email problem, and I actually started coding it up. Then I realized a whitelist works as well and is much easier to imple

This was my original idea to solve the email problem, and I actually started coding it up. Then I realized a whitelist works as well and is much easier to implement.

3np 5y ago
I'm curious why you even started coding? All it takes is an email host where you have a catch-all and a sieve filter on a couple of lines. I saw your whitelist approach before, got a bit inspired, and considered doing the same thing but never got around to it because it seemed like too much of a hassle (it needs to have not only a separate running process but also maintain persistent state). Funny how perceptions differ. While both share some benefits I think they're somewhat orthogonal. Your approach mostly works for humans mailing you individually (as you noted) while the biggest benefit for mine is for group- mass- and automated e-mail. IMO the golden thing would be to combine them, only using the whitelist for a subset of addresses you actually use for personal comms.
- BeetleB 5y ago
  > I'm curious why you even started coding? All it takes is an email host where you have a catch-all and a sieve filter on a couple of lines. Well my original idea was to have a unique email address for each person. So I needed a way to generate one on the fly. But now that you mention it, a catch all would have worked - I could generate the email even after giving the person his/her unique address. Still, there would be some burden to actually create those custom email addresses every time I meet someone new. The other side of the coding would be to ensure that when I email someone, the From/Reply-To addresses are the ones for that person. But what if I need to email 2 different people? For me, having a single email address for family/friends wouldn't work - it always gets leaked somehow.

3 ms·

This was my original idea to solve the email problem, and I actually started coding it up. Then I realized a whitelist works as well and is much easier to imple

by BeetleB 5y ago

This was my original idea to solve the email problem, and I actually started coding it up. Then I realized a whitelist works as well and is much easier to implement.

3np 5y ago
I'm curious why you even started coding? All it takes is an email host where you have a catch-all and a sieve filter on a couple of lines. I saw your whitelist approach before, got a bit inspired, and considered doing the same thing but never got around to it because it seemed like too much of a hassle (it needs to have not only a separate running process but also maintain persistent state). Funny how perceptions differ. While both share some benefits I think they're somewhat orthogonal. Your approach mostly works for humans mailing you individually (as you noted) while the biggest benefit for mine is for group- mass- and automated e-mail. IMO the golden thing would be to combine them, only using the whitelist for a subset of addresses you actually use for personal comms.
- BeetleB 5y ago
  > I'm curious why you even started coding? All it takes is an email host where you have a catch-all and a sieve filter on a couple of lines. Well my original idea was to have a unique email address for each person. So I needed a way to generate one on the fly. But now that you mention it, a catch all would have worked - I could generate the email even after giving the person his/her unique address. Still, there would be some burden to actually create those custom email addresses every time I meet someone new. The other side of the coding would be to ensure that when I email someone, the From/Reply-To addresses are the ones for that person. But what if I need to email 2 different people? For me, having a single email address for family/friends wouldn't work - it always gets leaked somehow.