Valdis writes:
That's one *TALL* order for a useful e-mail address.
Not really. A great many people never use e-mail for anything except
exchanging messages with friends and relatives.
That means that you can't join a mailing list for
(say) cancer survivors, or for people with persian
cats, or for your church, or for other immigrants
from the same country as you... because then your
address might be published.
Perhaps ... but most people never join mailing lists, so this is not a
problem for the bulk of the Internet community.
Sort of limits the usefulness of e-mail.
Hardly. Most people don't use mailing lists.
That means that you can't use the Internet
to buy things at a site that wants an e-mail
address to send you things like shipping confirmations.
Why not? Many companies will not publish or share your address.
For that matter, even if you're NOT on a mailing
list, and don't purchase things online, you have
to worry that *NONE* of your correspondents use a
certain worm-prone MUA ...
Spare me the angry-young-male syndrome.
The vast majority of people using Outlook Express (I assume that's the MUA
you're reluctant to name) are not infected by worms.
... if *they* get hit by a worm that finds your e-mail
address ...
_If_ they get hit by a worm. But they generally do not get hit by worms.
Sort of limits the usefulness of e-mail to a
ridiculous level.
Most people seem to get a lot out of e-mail despite spam. Most people don't
receive that much spam, unless their addresses are widely disseminated
and/or published.
So it's not safe to join a mailing list, it's not
safe to use it for any e-commerce, and it's not safe
to use it to communicate with the 85% of the
people who use the problem MUA.
Only the first point is valid, and even that depends on the mailing list.
E-commerce is not generally a problem, with reputable merchants, and the
"problem MUA" is not a problem for the vast majority of its users.
Your hyperbole is unwarranted and casts doubt upon your credibility for
those who know better.