RevK Feb 4, 2025

@neil Which would still make their answer a lie, and still lead to asking what they thing that definition is.

But one can ask, given we all know what email is, you can then answer:

Is web style email access like hotmail "email"?

Is anything using RFC2822 messaging protocol "email"?

And a few other specific questions to clarify the definition.

Show threadRevK Feb 4, 2025

@neil For example, does hotmail and office and so on actually use RFC2822 internally for message exchange? If not, is what they provide still "email"?

If it is, then what makes it so compared to say facebook?

What is the line you have to cross to no longer be "email"?

That needs to be known.

Show threadEd DaviesFeb 4, 2025
@revk @neil As somebody who worked on two email clients in the 1980s which had nothing to do with RFC 2822 (or even, for one of them, internet protocols) I don't have an understanding, shared or otherwise, of what email is. Some messaging services are email, some clearly are not but it seems to me there's a large grey area in between.
Show threadTim Ward ⭐🇪🇺🔶 #FBPE

@edavies @revk @neil And there's all the web sites which have an "email us" button ... and you click on it ... and it takes you to a web form rather than launching your email client.

WTF??

Maybe the content of the form *is* transported by email for part of its journey after you click the submit button, but to you, the punter, it's not "email", is it?

But ... maybe it is, if you're not a techie, and you've only ever used webmail, and to you email *is* filling in a form in a browser ...

Feb 4, 2025 at 6:33pmWeb
Show threadYvanFeb 4, 2025

@TimWardCam @edavies @revk @neil Sending an email with GMail/Hotmail/etc is also sort of just filling in a form in a browser... so to many people why not call that "email" I guess. Where's the line between such a form being a web "email app" and... not being "email"... (Having to log in, receive message, etc... no doubt.)

In a sort of way an "email" form on a company website is just a very feature-limited email client? 😅 Some of them do actually invoke some SMTP client code directly, so it sort of *is* a MUA. In the end most of them do end up as an email, though these days that's often via some sort of ticket system or CRM.

Is a ticket system email? Bug tracker? CRM? Etc.... 🤷🏻‍♂️

Show threadBrentdevFeb 4, 2025
@TimWardCam @edavies @revk @neil It's probably so they can track people who click on it vs. people who click on it and actually finish sending the email.