18: The Yoda of the Primordial Internet

Today we’ve got a chunk of Run Your Own Mail Server.

For many years Jon Postel, the Yoda of the primordial Internet, suggested that software should be strict in what it sends but generous in what it accepts. When you wrote an SMTP client you should make it adhere to the standards, but your SMTP server should accept that other people would screw up. In other words: accept the foibles of others.

Spammers’ goal is to deliver the most junk in a minimum of time. Accepting the foibles of others offers...