Hacker News Reader

Comment by jimwhite | Hacker News Reader

100% disagree. My standard gmail address is with dots but when I have to tell my (rather long because it is my full three part name) I either omit the dots or tell them they don't matter. Totally an important and useful feature. Netflix is at fault for letting someone else use your email without asking you for permission.

View on HN

Although I agree Netflix is more at fault here, I think gmail could also make you aware if an email is sent to a non-canonical address. They do have the canonical version to compare to, whether that's with dots or without.

I also have to put forward that if you have trouble telling people your email address then you probably chose a bad address. You didn't have to put in the dots, and he isn't actually suggesting that they get rid of them now anyway. I point this out only because it means your use case doesn't mean it's an "important and useful feature".

DONT do this. I own the dotless version of an email address like this. I constantly get email intended for some realtor in California that does this. I see so much paper work that I should never see.

Gmail could let you specify a list of valid addresses:

first.mid.last, firstmidlast, firstmid.last

Any others bounce or display the warning header suggested in the article.

That's exactly how it works today with the added benefit that the user does not have to enumerate the list and it's hard for other people to squat on slight variations to your email.

Canonization for deliverarbility (the enumerated list) can differ from canonization for uniqueness check (ignore all dots).

That isn't how it works today. They do not display any warning, and you have to hover your name to see what address it was sent to.

The infuriating part is that one can't reply from the address it was sent to, only from the one that's primary.

Yes, in fact this is one of the more annoying parts of this feature. When you're doing a support thing you usually have to reply with the exact same email. In my Google Suite account I have many domains setup to a single account and often times a reply uses my main account instead of an alias+domain I've setup on the account which received the email.

Would be nice to be able to easily reply as any of those combinations and default to the one it was sent to (dots, +'s, and domain).

Why should netflix be required to adhere to the different ways that every email provider doesn't adhere to the spec?

Because it's Netflix not adhering to the spec, which states that local addresses are to be interpreted by the host only. Netflix has no business caring about how Gmail interprets its local parts.

Well, if Netflix striped the periods, THAT would be not adhering to the spec. Netflix's issue is that they have a lax security practice, not that they don't adhere to the spec.

The email providers do adhere to the spec. The spec does not guarantee that different local parts go to different inboxes.

Gmail does adhere to the spec, which has nothing to do with this bug which is Netflix sending emails without verifying. Email isn't even relevant here. The exact same thing happens with postal mail addresses if something gives your address as theirs.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com