I used telnet to send mail via SMTP once, it's quite literally a good social protocol because it begins with a polite 'HELO'.

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a-dub an hour ago | parent [-]

the '90s version of finding the hiring manager or boss on linkedin to try and get a job was connecting to the company's public smtp server with telnet, using their name to probe different email address patterns with "rcpt to:" (those days the actual servers were often directly connected to the internet and would leak email address validity in how they would respond to rcpt to) and then sending them a nice email.

smtp grew up to be an antisocial curmudgeon. extended smtp starts with EHLO.

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jolmg 23 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> smtp grew up to be an antisocial curmudgeon. extended smtp starts with EHLO.

"EHLO" still sounds friendly. It just sounds like a different accent or something. Know someone that used to answer calls with a friendly "Jello?".

	▲	a-dub 4 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		yeah, i think you're right. i originally read a bit of snarky blow-off, like "eh. hello." ... but you know, now that i think of it, it's actually does have more of a friendly canadian style vibe.

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endofreach an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

> smtp grew up to be an antisocial curmudgeon. extended smtp starts with EHLO.

email will become so unusable, next one will have to be HELNO i guess