Julian Mehnle writes:

Yahoo cannot impose anything. There's absolutely nothing they can do to force anyone to use any scheme. If they do something stupid, it will be ignored. Anyone ever heard of the “Bonded spamme…” err, “Bonder Sender” scheme, from the fine folks that call themselves “Trust-E” (http://www.bondedsender.com)? Why haven't you heard of them? They've been around for a while, and they're not just one, but about a dozen 800lb gorillas, all rolled into one. Check out theirs sponsor/member list. It reads like “Who's who” of 800lb gorillas.

I read a hillarious message from CNN's postmaster, last year. He was complaining that their non-confirming mailing list traffic keeps getting bounced by ISPs due to them being blacklisted in several places. I really felt sorry for that poor, poor chap. He was such a naive child, a paragon of innocence; he firmly believed with his heart that because CNN was paying protection money to TrustE's “Bonded S…er” program it meant that all Internet providers worldwide must automatically whitelist CNN's mailing list traffic. He was utterly shocked when someone else gave him “the birds and the bees” rundown.

I could analyze and contrast the parallels and differences between TrustE's and Yahoo's approach for quite some time. Suffice to say that when TrustE banged their drums, announcing this great solutions to the ills of contemporary E-mail, I smirked, and went back to my business, without any doubt whatsoever that it'll turn out to be a major fiasco, which it did. For the same reasons I believe Yahoo's attempt has much better chances. Their proposal may still fail to get any traction. It's not a sure deal. But, based on what I've read, I think it's chances are good.