[vjerancrnjak]

I think this is standard. It applies to domains as well. I experienced government services blocks as well -- they send me an email, yet block my reply. I complain every time and rarely does anyone care, the support person does not escalate, so my email remains blocked, sometimes I'm told system is working as configured, completely ignoring that I am a real person and system is hostile towards me.

It's just general fragility of tech and lack of care from the creators/maintainers. These systems are steampunk, fragile contraptions that no one cares to actually make human friendly or are built on crappy foundations.

[hirako2000]

We call it the email mafia.

To send emails we need to pay for a mail service. Or get ads of course Gmail is part of the ring.

Like most things it start with good intentions, to fight spam. As if it even worked, I guess we would get far more without they will say.

[calvinmorrison]

It's one of the downsides of decentralized networks. Trust is built or pay-your-way-into'd.

[AnthonyMouse]

This has nothing to do with decentralized networks. It's simple incompetence.

If you haven't received any mail from a mail system before (or in a long time) and then it sends you one message, it probably isn't spam, because spammers are typically going to send you a large number of messages. You also typically want to let the first few messages through so the recipient can see them and then classify it as spam or not, so that you get some data on how to treat future messages from that sender.

This is the same thing a centralized system should be doing with individual users. You impose some reputation on accounts (e.g. by sender/registration IP address) and then if that address starts spamming people it gets blocked, and otherwise it doesn't.

[myself248]

Is there a government requirement to be reachable by its citizens? That would seem to violate it.

[pimeys]

I mean, yes? But that's by sending a letter, or a fax. Email is not part of this...

[miki123211]

This is one of the things that E-Delivery (something which Europe is now implementing[1,2,3]) is going to fix.

It's sort of like email, but based on the XML stack (SOAP / WSDL / XML Crypto / XML Sig), with proper citizen authentication and cryptographically-signed proof of sending and delivery.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/spaces/DI... [2] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A... [3] https://ec.europa.eu/digital-building-blocks/sites/spaces/DI...

[sam_lowry_]

How ugly it is...

[plagiarist]

This should have been updated decades ago to include email. Is it possible for any government to function properly?

[pimeys]

We are repeating obvious things here aren't we? I moved to Germany from a very pro IT country Finland. I've been here now for 15 years, and while I still disagree with their idea of dismissing email, I kind of got used to it. A couple more decades and it'll happen...

[furst-blumier]

The main issue is that who is supposed to implement it? The gov has 2 possibilities: hire a contractor, or do it themself. DIY has the issue that nobody wants to work for the gov because as any IT specialist you'd earn 1/3 or 1/4 of what you would earn in a private company. Stateworkers here cannot be fired. So you trade money for extreme "stability" (read: laziness). Hiring a contractor requires money they also don't see the necessity to spend. And that's how you end up in this situation. There are also other issues like no national wide implementation plan. Every state, every commune has to figure out and build stuff themself.