[ih] deterioration of email (was Re: clever usc creation)

[Gergely Buday]

A domingo, 26/07/2026, 00:40, Ofer Inbar via Internet-history <
internet-history at elists.isoc.org> escreveu:

> On Sat, Jul 18, 2026 at 12:51:04PM -0700,
> Jack Haverty via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org>
> wrote:
> > Over the last decade or two, I've suggested, several times, to
> > several ISOC administrations, that ISOC "walk the walk" with email
> > by serving as a prominent example of "how to do email right".   That
> > of course might require policies to possibly be changed, technical
> > flaws to be addressed, educational efforts, and even perhaps
> > governments' actions.
> >
> > Most Internet users today likely experience things like phishing
> > attacks, emails with forged sources, and other such effects that
> > make email untrustworthy in their views.   Most of the Internet
> > users have no idea how to protect themselves from such attacks.
> >  Most regulatory and government authorities seem to have no idea
> > what, if anything, they can do about it.
>
> A majority of younger Internet users (at least in the English speaking
> world I'm familiar with) - perhaps not an overwhelming majority, but
> quite certainly a majority - simply do not use email to communicate.
> They use it to verify their address for accounts, they use it to check
> for a specific thing that they know is going to be sent to them by
> email and that they know they want to see, and most of the rest of the
> time, they let their email pile up and they ignore nearly all of it.
>

Do these young people have a job? In a job, searching through your e-mails
is a pro feature. Instant messaging is good for your buddies but not for
serious stuff. In many countries e-mail is a legal document, no wonder that
many want to avoid it.

- Gergely

>
> To actually stay in touch with friends, family, coworkers, groups
> they're part of, etc. - all the things email used to be for - they
> use messaging apps.  Discord, Facebook, Slack Instagram, and more
> like that.  Or SMS/RCS phone texts.
>
> All of the various problems with email today, including the ones you
> listed, are I think dwarfed by one big one that has caused this:
> spam.  This includes both scattershot scam-oriented spam, but also
> lots of lists that sign you up without asking permission.  You donate
> to a political candidate, and some sleazy "grassroots" database starts
> selling your address to loads of other campaigns of the same party.
> You pay for a meal at a restaurant with your phone, enter the email
> address for your receipt, and now not only are you on the email list
> for that restaurant, but also the next cafe or ice cream place or
> whatever where the payment system recognizes your card and offers
> to email your receipt and you didn't notice the small checkbox to
> opt out of signing up.  You RSVP to an event on some sleazy site like
> eventbrite, and now you're on several mailing lists for similar events.
>
> The majority of email is assumed to be spam or otherwise irrelevant,
> by people whose experience of email started after the explosion of
> spam that I described above.  They never knew what it was like for
> email to be relevant and worth checking, so they don't think of it
> as relevant or worth checking.  Knowing this, they also don't think
> it's a useful way to communicate with anyone they know.
>   -- Cos
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