This is a suggested possible idea for Internet Mail with RFC 822 / RFC2822,etc.
It is similar to "disposable e-mail addresses", butimplemented in a different
way. It is suggested as a standard sothat it can be used by anyone with a
currently existing e-mail accountand an e-mail client. (The phrase "mailbox"
in quotes used belowdoes not refer to the word [mailbox] that is used in RFC
822 thatrefers to a username / account mailbox on a mail server.)
Thesuggestion is to add an optional ?mailbox? specification to theusername part
of the address textstring of an e-mail address. This ?mailbox? specification
couldbe used as an effective way to virtually eliminate SPAM (which I
willexplain about in more detail) and also, as a side benefit, give a nicetool
to organize a user?s incoming mail. An example address couldlook something
like this:
user101:mailbox(_at_)domain(_dot_)com
The [:] colon character could be used to separate the username from
the?mailbox? name and then the rest of the address after the [(_at_)]
symbolwould be the same. Adding a ?mailbox? specification should becompatible
with SMTP and any e-mail sender?s client software since itwill consider
everything in front the [(_at_)] symbol to be ausername. There would only need
to be slight changes with theserver software of a mail server thatwants to
offer this service to theirown users. A server that allows this service would
need toanalyzethe username in an incoming e-mail address differently by only
lookingat everything before the [:] colon when looking for the username. The
server (especially one the uses POP3 when users check their mail)doesn?t need
to concern itself with the ?mailbox? specification, butcan just let the user?s
client software take care of that. Oneway you could use ?mailbox? names for
organizational purposes is that,on a business card, you could say
[user.name:clients(_at_)work(_dot_)com]so
all mail from potential business clients who use that address willend up in a
clients ?mailbox? view in your e-mail program.
In regards to how this could be used to virtually eliminate unsolicitedmail,
you could use the ?mailbox? specification in the followingways. When you give
your e-mail address to someone, like all yourfamily members, you could give
them something like this (which theycould still put in their e-mail program?s
address book just like anye-mail address):
[user101:family37(_at_)domain(_dot_)com](_dot_) Your e-mail client software
(and possibly the server) could be set tonot accept any e-mail that doesn?t
include a ?mailbox? specification orincludes a ?mailbox? name that you haven?t
created. You couldthen have a special folder or ?mailbox? view that would show
all ofyour e-mail from family members. The ?mailbox? name could actalmost like
a password (something that SPAMers wouldn?t be able toguess without sending out
thousands of attempts) but that you couldgive out as part of your e-mail
address. It would be veryunlikely that a family member would give that
?mailbox? name away on aSPAMers list; but even
if they did you would only need to change the?mailbox? name with your family
members to stop it. With?mailbox? names your whole e-mail account should never
be completelycorrupted if it ends up on a SPAMers list, since you can just
deletethe ?mailbox? name the SPAMer?s are using to send you e-mail and
nothaving to go looking for a new e-mail account.
Probably the number-one way your e-mail address ends-up on a SPAMer?slist is by
entering your e-mail address on a website to sign-up for anewsletter or if it
is required to use their website?s services. You could create a special mailbox
just for newsletters that yousolicit and want to receive. Whenever you sign-up
for anewsletter you could type in something like
[user101:news304-site(_dot_)com(_at_)domain(_dot_)com](_dot_) You could
increase security with a ?mailbox? by creating virtual?mailbox? names that
includes both fixed and variable parts. Inyour e-mail client you could specify
a ?mailbox? name for yournewsletters by including a wildcard character(s) [*]
or [?] in thename. For instance you could name the mailbox something
likethese: [news*], [???news91], [news*letters], or [newsletters-*]. The e-mail
client will then accept any email to that virtual ?mailbox?that has those fixed
parts, but can have any number of alpha-numericcharacters wherever the wildcard
[*] character appears, or just asingle
varying alpha-numeric character where a [?] wildcard characterappears. This
would allow you to give a random set of numbers orletters where the wildcard is
in the newsletter ?mailbox? name eachtime you give your e-mail address to
sign-up for a newsletter on awebsite. For instance, on one website you could
enter[user101:news2549] and then for another newsletter something
like[user101:news8f3c], etc. If just one of the newsletters yousigned-up for
leaked your e-mail address to a SPAM list, you can justblock that one virtual
?mailbox? name that you used when signing-up forthat newsletter and still
receive the other newsletters just thesame. Another benefit is that you would
be able to tell wholeaked your e-mail address by comparing the e-mail address
?mailbox?name that was used by the SPAMers that also matches the ?mailbox?
nameused by one of the newsletter senders. Wildcards shouldn't beused too
liberally because wildcards increase the number of accepted"mailbox" names
significantly (depending on how you use them), but thatdecision would be up to
each user on how secure they want their"mailbox" names to be.
Thank you for your time in considering something like this forimproving e-mail.
I have had to abandon a few e-mail accountsalready from getting too much SPAM
there, and by having ?mailbox? namesyou could keep your e-mail address forever
and just change certain?mailbox? names that get corrupted (which by having
?mailbox? names inthe first place would make that unlikely to happen anyway).
Icurrently live in fear of my new address getting into the wrong handsand
having to get a new address all over again (even though I amcareful and have a
free address just for bulk mail and entering onwebsites for mailing lists).
Something similar to this shouldwork with the currentInternet e-mail protocols
(especially on the sender?s side and withSMTP in general) except for adding a
patch to the server software forreceiving servers that want to offer this
service to their users, thatwillinterpret everything before the [:] colon as
the username. ThePOP3 protocol wouldn?t need to be changed, except
for possibly addingnew features like a user choosing to have the server block
all e-mailthat doesn?t designate a ?mailbox? name or possibly storing
?mailbox?names on the server to block unwanted e-mail at the server level
(whichwould help reduce SPAM Internet traffic). IMAP would probablywant to
integrate the ?mailbox?names into its features since they already have things
like user-sidefoldersand mailboxes that could work with the address-side
?mailbox?names in the e-mail address itself. Thank you again for you timein
considering some way to designate address-side ?mailboxes? in anInternet mail
address.
(P.S. Another standard separator character (or just an extraalternative
character) besides the [:] colon [whichis currently not allowed in usernames
because it is designated forspecifying groups which shouldn't cause a conflict
from what I figured]could be used if there would beproblems in using it in some
applications or protocols. Since the[:] is currently not allowed it should not
appear in any existing user/ account names on a mail server. I testedthe <a
href=?mailto:user101:family37(_at_)domain(_dot_)com></a> HTMLtags in both
Internet Explorer 6.0 and Netscape 7.0 and they bothworked properly creating a
new message in an e-mail client, as Iexpected they would. I also attempted to
send an e-mail to [user101:family37(_at_)domain(_dot_)com]and it seemed to go
through SMTP okay with just a return e-mail fromthe domain.com mail server
saying the username was unknown as Iexpected.)
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