alt Hacker News> C=no; ADMD=; PRMD=uninett; O=uninett; S=alvestrand; G=harald
that would be very annoying way to write e-mail and no less prone to typosquatting (if anything, more)
Both standards lacked hindsight we have today but x.400 would just be added complexity (as years of tacked-on extensions would build upon it) that makes non-error-prone parsing harder
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Ah but the solution was an X.500 directory where you just look up the recipient! So you never type the e-mail address, you just look up "Joe Smith" to send them an e-mail. Like looking them up in the phone book. Ignore the fact that the directory may return multiple Joe Smiths at the same large organization, not return Joe Smyth you wanted to message, or that there's not even a hint of anonymity with such directories. Oh yeah the internal organization of a company could be easily enumerated from the outside.
Plus, having to change email addresses when you physically move, in addition to when you change providers, would be immensely annoying.