Re: Decentralized reliable instant messaging?
On Tue 30 Aug 2016 at 20:42:42 +0100, Joe wrote:
> On Tue, 30 Aug 2016 18:53:35 +0100
> Brian <ad44@cityscape.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > On Tue 30 Aug 2016 at 17:49:34 +0100, Joe wrote:
> >
> > > On Tue, 30 Aug 2016 09:59:42 -0400
> > > Henning Follmann <hfollmann@itcfollmann.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > On Tue, Aug 30, 2016 at 02:52:14PM +0100, Lisi Reisz wrote:
> > > > > On Tuesday 30 August 2016 14:05:36 Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > > > > > "shocked that anyone would want to design or use an
> > > > > > unreliable messaging system"
> > > > >
> > > > > Email is getting less and less reliable, so have you given up
> > > > > using it?? :-(
> > > > >
> > > > > Lisi
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > > However, why email is still reliable, because a proper setup
> > > > provides you with a well defined error messages (in case it is
> > > > not delivered).
> > >
> > > If an email is designated as spam, it will be *silently* dropped. It
> > > took mail admins a long time to realise that if a message was spam,
> > > the last thing they should do with it is to 'return' it to the
> > > apparent 'sender' as part of a bounce message.
> >
> > It is taking users a much, much longer time to realise that mail
> > admins are making decisions to drop mail which is intended for them
> > (very often without being involved in the choice). Now, if the postal
> > service did this....
> >
>
> Are you advocating 'returning' spam emails to innocent third parties?
> Silently dropping would seem to be the lesser of current evils.
Not at all. I was shifting the focus of the discussion. If users
are willing to accept that ISPs have the right to drop mails on
some arbitrary whim it is no wonder email can be seen as unreliable.
> But emails are not expected to be reliable today. Even apart from false
> spam positives, a broken server can eat email, or delay it during
> periods of heavy load. Someone sending urgent data by email will confirm
> its arrival using a telephone.
100% of the mails I have sent arrived at their destination. That is what
I would call reliable. Any delays in the recipient getting the mail (or
the mail being or dropped) are the responsibility of someone else. The
postal system works in the same way. Nothing is perfect.
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