Comment by jancsika

> The unknown request will be buried in spam - a problem we have already, but worse.

I feel like every one of these suggested changes to email comes with a functionally equivalent parody magic trick.

For this one, a magician has two stacks of cards: a tall stack of "spam" cards, and a small stack of "inbox" cards.

The magician moves the stacks apart to make a spot for a new "request" stack.

To start the stack, they pick up five "request" cards from the inbox stack with one hand while subtly pushing the entire stack of "spam" cards with the other hand to spot they made for the "request" stack.

They then pass the five cards they were holding behind their back, revealing them with the opposite hand and finally shuffling them into the now tall stack of "request" cards.

Ta da!

> If I was redesigning email I would think long and hard about different use cases and workflows and start with an RFC.

A magician sweeps 17 sloppy stacks of cards off the table. They then show how the first 15 cards they pick up can more easily be arranged in only three stacks. Voila! Everybody claps.

While the audience members put money in the hat, the pedants stick around and watch the magician pick up the rest of the cards and end up with 18 sloppy stacks by the time the audience for the next show arrives.

Edit: clarification

Edit 2: I forgot this part: "Protocols are far downstream of that." So imagine 8 tiny tables below the main one which somehow end up with more than 52 cards in each of their 17 sloppy stacks.