Talk:Email system/Draft

This article is intended to be the most basic on how the Internet email system works (as opposed to history, applications of email, etc.) Our target audience includes non-technical professionals such as lawyers and administrators who make policy involving email systems. We will defer to subtopics details such as message formats and transfer protocols. Topics relating to email security are also proper subtopics, because it is much easier to discuss email security once you understand how the system works. Email abuse (spam, phishing, etc.) is a related topic, because it does not expand on or depend on this article.

Here is our current thinking on how this hierarchy of topics should be developed:

Email System
 Parents
   Computers > Networks > Applications > Email
                        > Internet > Email
 Subtopics
   Message Transfer
     SMTP           (RFC-5321)
     POP            (RFC-1939)
     IMAP           (RFC-3501) 
   Message Formats  (RFC-5322)
     Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (RFC-2045..2049)
     Message Headers (RFC-5322)
   Authentication Methods
     SPF
     SenderID
     DKIM
     CSV
     
 Other
   TCP
   DNS
   PGP
   Kerberos
   History
   Abuse
   Email User Programs (Webmail)