HN Explorer

Show HN: FAQ for mnm, an open source project to replace email/SMTP

1 points by networkimprov ↗ HN
My open source project, "mnm", debuted on the HN front page over the weekend.[1]

It prompted a lot of Q's in the comments, so I've assembled an FAQ to address them:

https://mnmnotmail.org/faq.html

More questions welcome!

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25804869 (not in Show HN)

4 comments

[ 4.3 ms ] story [ 18.2 ms ] thread
theamk
I am not sure why this is pitched as "email replacement". one of the primary functions of email is a global identifier - you can post your email on websites, embed in software, write on business card, share via web form.

Mnm has no global identity and no federation - so what this protocol really replaces is either non-federated chats like IRC or Slack; or internal message systems like the ones found on bigger forums.

solus_factor
Read your rationale. Sorry, this is extremely naive.

You describe the problems correctly, but your solutions are very shallow.

"Don't store delivered emails"? Great, now we need to do backups of all the individual mail clients!

"Instances that can't be accessed from outside". What happens when such an instance gets compromised? And now _everybody_ on your internal network, who trusts this system without a slightest doubt, will get massively owned.

And on and on it goes...

networkimprov
It would help if you'd ask Q's rather than assume you absorbed all the context & details from a short requirements outline.

The TMTP server supports replication to multiple clients per account, which enables backup. I note in the FAQ that servers may perform archiving (which is not the same as retaining all the traffic).

Any network information system could be compromised. Zillions of them are trusted. If you're alluding to E2EE, see the FAQ.

https://mnmnotmail.org/faq.html