Re: [EAI] @ in Intranets

[SM <sm at resistor.net>]

Hi Shawn,
At 12:36 28-10-2009, Shawn Steele wrote:
> It seems common, in enterprises at least, to have such 
> internal/intranet resources that aren't fully specified.  I wonder 
> if perhaps the standard should allow that mailto: without an @ MAY 
> be used for Intranet use only?  Of course I could argue that if it's 
> for Intranet use only, then it doesn't need to be in an IETF 
> standard :)  Since many tools work in both Internet and Intranet 
> environments, it might be good to allow the common practice.

By diverging from RFC 5321, you may be introducing some 
ambiguity.  Today's Intranet environment might be moved to the 
Internet tomorrow.  Your mailto:local-part will be qualified and you 
cannot tell where the message may end up.  Standardizing (not IETF) 
is generally less work.  If you do not take out the "@", you still 
have some semblance of an email address.  If you keep "At-domain", 
you make it easier for the IETF. :-)

I adopted an approach similar to yours many years ago in an 
environment that was not an Intranet.  I would not adopt the same 
approach now as the boundary between private and public is blurry.

Regards,
-sm