[UA-discuss] interesting to note about emoji in mailbox name.

[Charles 'chaals' (McCathie) Nevile]

On Fri, 12 Apr 2019 20:29:27 +0200, Tex <textexin at xencraft.com> wrote:

> If UASG were to recommend prohibiting emoji in mailbox names, are we  
> referring strictly to emoji or more generally graphical characters such  
> as wingdings and line drawing characters, etc.?
>
> We need to declare an explicit list of characters that should be avoided.

A small detail - I think we rather should declare a whitelist of things  
that are acceptable.

> As the argument against allowing emoji is largely based on  
> confusability, I would recommend the prohibition be worded to say they  
> should be avoided for now until such time as a sensible list of allowed  
> emoji can be provided.

+1

> There is sufficient demand that people will want to use certain emoji  
> and the solution would be to allow a list of useful emoji that are not  
> confusable.

Indeed.

> For example, a single heart emoji could be allowed so that people (or  
> corporations or other entities) could use I♥NYC without mistaking how to  
> enter or write it or confusing it with other similar looking characters.
>
> More generally, there needs to be a list of the characters that are  
> allowed or disallowed in mailbox names, as that list may need to be  
> different from domain names, and there are characters besides emoji that  
> may be confusable or problematic in mailboxes.

Hmm. There is a core difference in assumptions here. For a domain, it is  
possible in principle for someone to register a different - but  
confusingly similar - domain.

For an email address, the domain owner determines whether this problem can  
arise, and so the assumption is that they will fix it (unlike the  
assumption we make about domain registrars, in the parallel cases like  
Coremail, Yandex Mail, and so on).

This needs thinking out, but "emoji are inferior to other characters and  
should not be used so that's the end of discussion" seems like an argument  
dangerously at odds with perceived reality.

cheers

Chaals


-- 
Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/