3 ms·

Email's not sexy

2 points by jal278 15y ago

jayfuerstenberg 15y ago
Email is indeed one of those dead things that just keeps on going because the network effect driving it is so strong. Most improvements to email have taken place in walled gardens like Facebook and enterprise products like Exchange and do not benefit everybody. Google Wave incorporated some of these ideas and even combined mail and IM into one communication medium, but alas it never took off. A viable replacement needs to: 1. be an open protocol 2. do everything email can do and more 3. be open to future enhancements 4. play nice with the current email infrastructure 5. be easy to setup/install/administer It's more of a marketing problem than a technical problem. We already know how to help people communicate. We need to create something worth adopting over email.
- jal278 15y ago
  I agree, I think in the next few years something will be able to fill this gap. And maybe the problem is adoption right now. Anything we're not really excited about and is based on ancient paradigms (email is exactly what you would think electronic version of regular mail would be like) seems ripe for replacement, although getting people to jump from something so deeply engrained into a lifestyle is difficult.
spitfire 15y ago
This is something that has been bothering me for a decade. and I know what is wrong with it. The problem is not the technology. It would be trivial to fix email technology. The problem is the people running email servers. They're the worst anti-social, celibate, neckbeard stereotype you can possibly imagine. and they fear change - trust me I've tried. It would be so trivial to simply remove many of the options in a modern email system (do you really need uucp at all today?) and produce an email server that could be setup by anyone. In fact, I would suggest someone begin a new protocol by building a hybrid mailserver. One that supports the ancient smtp/pop/imap stuff, and that supports a new utopia protocol. At the EHLO foo.com split off into your new utopia. The neck beards will fight you tooth and nail against that though. Simple way around that though - target the users. Good luck to anyone who tries. The challenge is not technical, it's social.

2 points by jal278 15y ago

Email is indeed one of those dead things that just keeps on going because the network effect driving it is so strong. Most improvements to email have taken place in walled gardens like Facebook and enterprise products like Exchange and do not benefit everybody. Google Wave incorporated some of these ideas and even combined mail and IM into one communication medium, but alas it never took off. A viable replacement needs to: 1. be an open protocol 2. do everything email can do and more 3. be open to future enhancements 4. play nice with the current email infrastructure 5. be easy to setup/install/administer It's more of a marketing problem than a technical problem. We already know how to help people communicate. We need to create something worth adopting over email.

jal278 15y ago
I agree, I think in the next few years something will be able to fill this gap. And maybe the problem is adoption right now. Anything we're not really excited about and is based on ancient paradigms (email is exactly what you would think electronic version of regular mail would be like) seems ripe for replacement, although getting people to jump from something so deeply engrained into a lifestyle is difficult.

spitfire 15y ago

This is something that has been bothering me for a decade. and I know what is wrong with it. The problem is not the technology. It would be trivial to fix email technology. The problem is the people running email servers. They're the worst anti-social, celibate, neckbeard stereotype you can possibly imagine. and they fear change - trust me I've tried. It would be so trivial to simply remove many of the options in a modern email system (do you really need uucp at all today?) and produce an email server that could be setup by anyone. In fact, I would suggest someone begin a new protocol by building a hybrid mailserver. One that supports the ancient smtp/pop/imap stuff, and that supports a new utopia protocol. At the EHLO foo.com split off into your new utopia. The neck beards will fight you tooth and nail against that though. Simple way around that though - target the users. Good luck to anyone who tries. The challenge is not technical, it's social.