In Step One, the easy fix to mail reader apps is to eliminate languages that make no sense to the reader. If, however, one is multilingual, one needs to make exceptions to what should be a default mail filtering rule.

Step Two is similar in a way to Step One, in that it uses easy filtration rules to automatically delete mails from domains that are outside of the reader’s interest. In my case, I’d probably be happy to eliminate .ru, .cn, .jp, .br, and many other countries where I have no knowlegde of a single individual relationship that would be made by email. Today, just eliminating the .ru domain would allow me to have saved deleting over 300 spam email messages.

Some will say that this is onerous, even myopic. Nonetheless, if I want mail from a new and real Russian friend, I can always start in .com, .edu, .tel, and then move on. It’s a quirk of the top level domain (TLD) naming convention and the US origin of the Internet that causes this problem. And it’s a potentially easy fix to any email reader to filter undesired domains into the digital trash can. No fuss, no muss. Some people will mistakenly put potentially valid TLD-based email into the trash. Some people will mistakenly drive off cliffs. The reason that a default admittance hasn’t been made to this point most likely is that it’s a potential customer service problem and mail application makers don’t want to deal with it. It’s easy to add this filter, let people choose which domains they’ll like and which they want to completely deny mail from. If ICANN had been more responsible, we’d have other methods to stanch the flow of fraud, deception, malware, and other email-born problems. And that will the be the crux of tomorrow’s post.