Hypothetical Death Match - E-mail vs. the Web

netbuzz writes "If you had no choice but to choose, which would you give up: access to e-mail or the Web? Both still exist, just not for you. Read how others are defending their decisions — and how a few just refuse to choose." From the article: "From Stewart Deck: 'The Web has become intertwined into so much that I do and so much that I want to know and learn about that without it I might as well move to a grass hut in Irkutsk. The Web brings me closer to words, thoughts and ideas far beyond my geographical boundaries. I use it for information, education, insight, entertainment, EVERYTHING. ... I certainly enjoy the convenience of e-mail but I think I could put together work-arounds that would hold up reasonably well in its absence.'"

Decisions, decisions...

Bob's sweating brow arched over the red buttons. Intensely aware of the large calibre handgun just behind his ear and the maniac holding it who was now forcing him to choose which button to press, he was unable to decide whether to remove email or web access from his life. His pleadings to the madman had been to no avail, it had come down to choosing. His hand strained, hovering over the fateful buttons, veins bulging under the skin as his blood pressure rose and his body temperature boiled his brain. The pain of impending loss was too great, made all the more horrible by the knowledge that it would be done by his own hand.

"Hurry up!" Snapped the crazed madman from between rotten teeth and foul breath. "I ain't got all day!" As he prodded the gun forward, digging the heavy barrel into Bob's temple, Bob quivered in fear. He knew from watching Dirty Harry movies that a handgun like that would blow his head clean off, the brain matter he was so proud of scattered over the ground like so much wet, red confetti.

Our geeky hero let out a strained whimper, a silent pleading for someone, anyone, to intervene and save him from this horrible choice. Simultaneous images of mailing lists and blogs swirled in his tortured mind. Finally, a decision took form. It took form with the certainty of the iceberg in front of the Titanic, and just like then, he came to the bitter conclusion that his fate was unavoidable.

Slowly, he turned to the madman. The fear had given way to a stony resignation and determination. He looked the madman straight in the eye and said "Shoot me, asshole."

The web

I'd rather have the world's largest public library than the world's largest postal service.

Also, people can communicate by leaving post-it notes on books :)

Email just has to go

I could live without email as it hasn't been hopelessly intertwined into my life.... yet. I could always set up a discussion board/similar on my website for people to post whatever they wanted to email me with. Oh! And then I could have a program automatically parse that. And to post my replies!

Wait, what are we defining email as?

I Thought it Obvious

...could always set up a discussion board/similar on my website for people to post whatever they wanted to email me with.

That was my first thought. Then I read the article and laughed at how many people focused on what they needed more to do their job--the web or email.

I don't really see the point of the exercise, particularly among an IT crowd... but it actually would be an interesting hypothetical in the "regular world." Most non-techies I know use the internet about 50% for email and 50% for "other," and "other" is often quite trivial. My grandmother sends urban legends and spiritual poems. My mother keeps in touch with friends and writing groups.

Everything they do could very easily be duplicated in a forum or some such, but there's the tech split: the people who know how to set up their own domain and hosting and a forum or blog would choose differently than "the masses."

Somehow I doubt it.

My UID is prime... is yours?

Somehow I doubt it. But I'm pretty sure it's expressible as the sum of two primes.

And I'm positive that it's expressible as the product of twenty two or fewer primes.

--MarkusQ

P.S. And to answer the main question, I couldn't do without either. Just the thought of having all that productive time back gives me the heebie jeebies.

What would I give up?

Email. No thought required. I work in an office, and I get a ton of emails every day. Each one of them tends to cause work for me.

If HTTP was blocked at work though, I'd be looking for another job pretty quick. Saying that, my new company recently decided that I must take lunch at 12pm rather than 1pm and that was enough for me to accept interviews at other companies.

One has a Replacement...One Doesn't...

If I want instant access to information, the web is my only choice.

If I want to talk to someone, I can use this fancy technology that I like to call a "phone."

The only people who I could see picking e-mail over the web are those who are either deaf or mute, or are so socially inept that they can't talk to people over the phone.

Pitch email! then re-invent it and reap the profit

yep.. since email is implemented via IP packets, you pitch it and straight away code the protocols for the exact same thing.

patent it..

give it away free to pro-gpl and anti-drm groups, and charge proprietary houses and DRM vendors through the nose for your fortune! : )

I want to say eMail...

but the prices on v1aGR4 are so good... and a really important person from Nigeria just sent me an offer you will all be jealous of... and besides I don't think the web has all these .scr files I get.

If I had email or the web...

If I had either SMTP or HTTP it would take me no more than a few days to get the other, and that's if I had to write the proxy myself, using nothing but an Apple ][ and a 300 baud modem. In Forth. Without a language card. On a MONOCHROME monitor. Uphill. In the snow. Both ways.

How about Usenet? Do I get NNTP? Gopher? FTP? Telnet? UUCP?

Christ, what a STUPID question.

Random ruminations...

As you, my first thought was "what about webmail?"... however the article says:

This is an academic exercise (obviously) so there will be no cheating allowed. No IM, text messaging or Web mail to substitute for e-mail.

I'm not sure why IM is considered cheating if you give up on email. (You can't IM someone you don't know out of the blue; most companies don't have IM addresses listed, etc.) If IM is 'cheating' then isn't the telephone cheating, too? What about IRC? Is that cheating?

As the author says it's purely academic. My problem with these 'what-ifs' is that because they are unusual, the only way to give a sensible answer is to know all the extraneous details that are left to the imagination. What are the repercussions of breaking the rule? What are the limitations? What are the rules? Is it cheating to put up messages on forum, then phone your friends and tell them to go reply? On the flip side, it's probably cheating to email people and ask "can you do a google search and tell me..." but is it cheating if you just email them the question? In this day and age, if you ask someone a question, they'll start with a web-search anyways.

If I had to decide, I'd also select the web. Email is one of many communication modes available today (and its functionality is easily emulated elsehow), but when it comes to information collection/dissemination, the web is really unique.