<story><title>Email is not broken: It’s a framework, not an application</title><url>http://blog.killtheradio.net/technology/email-is-not-broken-its-a-framework-not-an-application/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tferris</author><text>Couldn&apos;t upvote this more.&lt;p&gt;I am fed up with posts telling me email is broken and a new disruptive tech will be the cure. Email is an open protocol, decentralized, providing optional security.&lt;p&gt;Shortcomings—or rather call them additional requirements—can be solved with tools keeping email focussed on async text-based communication. Want to send large files? Dropbox. Want more automation? Improve the client side and/or write scripts. Want less spam? Don&apos;t distribute your address or sign-up everywhere.&lt;p&gt;If you don&apos;t like your inbox being a todo-list you should change something—maybe your job, profession or your work environment but it&apos;s definitely not email. I have got rarely todos in my inbox.&lt;p&gt;For me, email is—if you mind a set of rules—an efficient way of communication which is documented. You can easily and asynchronously discuss and agree on topics in a transparent manner with one or more participants, again: with an open and decentralized technology, no middleman anywhere. Sometimes obviously it&apos;s better to meet folks face to face.&lt;p&gt;Now tell me, which tool can do this? What do you want to improve?&lt;p&gt;This whole email is broken thing is just done for the sake of getting attention, making a lame conference presentation &quot;disruptive&quot; or getting some crappy todo app funded.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sbov</author><text>Agreed:&lt;p&gt;Anyone who claims &quot;email is a bad TODO list&quot; is an email problem is missing the forest for the trees.  This isn&apos;t an email problem.  It&apos;s a problem inherit in any communication medium.&lt;p&gt;If you sit in an IRC channel that can become a TODO list too.  For snail mail, the coffee table you throw everything onto is a TODO list.  For people who receive a lot of phone calls, their voicemail is a TODO list.</text></comment>
<story><title>Email is not broken: It’s a framework, not an application</title><url>http://blog.killtheradio.net/technology/email-is-not-broken-its-a-framework-not-an-application/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>tferris</author><text>Couldn&apos;t upvote this more.&lt;p&gt;I am fed up with posts telling me email is broken and a new disruptive tech will be the cure. Email is an open protocol, decentralized, providing optional security.&lt;p&gt;Shortcomings—or rather call them additional requirements—can be solved with tools keeping email focussed on async text-based communication. Want to send large files? Dropbox. Want more automation? Improve the client side and/or write scripts. Want less spam? Don&apos;t distribute your address or sign-up everywhere.&lt;p&gt;If you don&apos;t like your inbox being a todo-list you should change something—maybe your job, profession or your work environment but it&apos;s definitely not email. I have got rarely todos in my inbox.&lt;p&gt;For me, email is—if you mind a set of rules—an efficient way of communication which is documented. You can easily and asynchronously discuss and agree on topics in a transparent manner with one or more participants, again: with an open and decentralized technology, no middleman anywhere. Sometimes obviously it&apos;s better to meet folks face to face.&lt;p&gt;Now tell me, which tool can do this? What do you want to improve?&lt;p&gt;This whole email is broken thing is just done for the sake of getting attention, making a lame conference presentation &quot;disruptive&quot; or getting some crappy todo app funded.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>icefox</author><text>&amp;#62; Want less spam? Don&apos;t distribute your address or sign-up everywhere.&lt;p&gt;Around 1999 or so I noticed someone trying to send spam to every common name on my mail server.  I had never given out my email address and yet here I was getting spam just because I had a server.  Even if I heavily obfuscate my email address on my website such as with this hack &lt;a href=&quot;http://icefox.github.com/js_email_link_hack/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://icefox.github.com/js_email_link_hack/&lt;/a&gt; I would still get spam because this attack vector.</text></comment>