2 ms·

Did you read beyond #1 in the post?

Zikes 13y ago
Yes, and none of those extra steps actually have a significant effect over simple regex checking to confirm the validity of the email, because there is no way to know what the user's correct email address actually is besides sending them a validation email. None. The domain may exist, the mailbox may exist, it may match all the rules for that particular mail exchange, it can pass this validator with flying colors, but you still have to send that validation email because I could just as easily have entered your email as my own, and that makes this a moot step.
- swampthing 13y ago
  I don't think anyone is claiming that this can replace the function that a validation email serves. What this allows you to do is give feedback to users quicker. If a user signs up for your service and mistypes the domain name for their email address, they'll never hear anything from you. And if they don't know they made a typo, they'll just think that you have a flaky service. This lets you prevent that from happening.
- damoncali 13y ago
  I think you're missing the intended use case. It's meant to keep people from fat-fingering their address on an email signup form (think mailing list, not web app).
- old-gregg 13y ago
  Mailgunner here. Perhaps we should have given it a different name? We do not guarantee that the address is valid. But we surely beat your regexp. Why? Simply because we're an ESP and have a huge database of valid MX hosts and the most common misspellings for them that are NOT valid MX hosts. And we give you suggestions to implement autocompletion/autocorrection. Besides, many of our customers reach out to our support asking for regexp suggestions. So we figured it would be cool to offer this to everyone for free, so we launched it.
  - Zikes 13y ago
    Actually I think you've got the name spot on, I had the wrong term. What I was looking for was confirmation email, not validation. And yes, your service is a pretty big step up from regular validation regexps. I didn't see the value in that before, but that's my own fault. I now see there's a lot of potential for a service like this, and I hope it's put to good use.
- United857 13y ago
  Even if it's just a regex, handling the fully-general case is surprisingly complex: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/201323/using-a-regular-expression-to-validate-an-email-address/1917982#1917982 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/201323/using-a-regular-ex... This doesn't even count domain validation, what with new TLDs coming online constantly, etc.
user24 13y ago
I don't see how your reply addresses OP's point. Can you elaborate?

Zikes 13y ago

Yes, and none of those extra steps actually have a significant effect over simple regex checking to confirm the validity of the email, because there is no way to know what the user's correct email address actually is besides sending them a validation email. None. The domain may exist, the mailbox may exist, it may match all the rules for that particular mail exchange, it can pass this validator with flying colors, but you still have to send that validation email because I could just as easily have entered your email as my own, and that makes this a moot step.

swampthing 13y ago
I don't think anyone is claiming that this can replace the function that a validation email serves. What this allows you to do is give feedback to users quicker. If a user signs up for your service and mistypes the domain name for their email address, they'll never hear anything from you. And if they don't know they made a typo, they'll just think that you have a flaky service. This lets you prevent that from happening.
damoncali 13y ago
I think you're missing the intended use case. It's meant to keep people from fat-fingering their address on an email signup form (think mailing list, not web app).
old-gregg 13y ago
Mailgunner here. Perhaps we should have given it a different name? We do not guarantee that the address is valid. But we surely beat your regexp. Why? Simply because we're an ESP and have a huge database of valid MX hosts and the most common misspellings for them that are NOT valid MX hosts. And we give you suggestions to implement autocompletion/autocorrection. Besides, many of our customers reach out to our support asking for regexp suggestions. So we figured it would be cool to offer this to everyone for free, so we launched it.
- Zikes 13y ago
  Actually I think you've got the name spot on, I had the wrong term. What I was looking for was confirmation email, not validation. And yes, your service is a pretty big step up from regular validation regexps. I didn't see the value in that before, but that's my own fault. I now see there's a lot of potential for a service like this, and I hope it's put to good use.
United857 13y ago
Even if it's just a regex, handling the fully-general case is surprisingly complex: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/201323/using-a-regular-expression-to-validate-an-email-address/1917982#1917982 http://stackoverflow.com/questions/201323/using-a-regular-ex... This doesn't even count domain validation, what with new TLDs coming online constantly, etc.

user24 13y ago

I don't see how your reply addresses OP's point. Can you elaborate?