networkimprov

mnm

Go2020–2021

networkimprov / mnm

mnm

mnm implements TMTP protocol. Let Internet sites message members directly, instead of unreliable, insecure email. Contributors welcome! (Server)

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4Distinct people

14Mentions

0Explicit recommenders

225GitHub stars

REPOSITORY AT A GLANCE

What to know before exploring

What it is

mnm implements TMTP protocol. Let Internet sites message members directly, instead of unreliable, insecure email. Contributors welcome! (Server)

GitHub

Where it is used

No documented product use has been verified yet.

What people are saying

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No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.

Also in these discussions

No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.

This week on Hacker News

Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 1:49:46 PM UTC.

No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.

Mentions over time

HN mentions by week14 dated mentions

Observed mentions: 2020-12-15 23:36:19 UTC to 2021-05-01 01:11:23 UTC. Weeks start Monday, UTC.

Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.

View mention counts and date ranges

UTC ranges include their start and exclude their end. Select a period to filter the source evidence.
Period	Start (UTC)	End (exclusive, UTC)	Mentions	Comments
Dec 14	2020-12-14 00:00:00 UTC	2020-12-21 00:00:00 UTC	1	1
Dec 21	2020-12-21 00:00:00 UTC	2020-12-28 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Dec 28	2020-12-28 00:00:00 UTC	2021-01-04 00:00:00 UTC	1	1
Jan 4	2021-01-04 00:00:00 UTC	2021-01-11 00:00:00 UTC	2	2
Jan 11	2021-01-11 00:00:00 UTC	2021-01-18 00:00:00 UTC	7	7
Jan 18	2021-01-18 00:00:00 UTC	2021-01-25 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Jan 25	2021-01-25 00:00:00 UTC	2021-02-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Feb 1	2021-02-01 00:00:00 UTC	2021-02-08 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Feb 8	2021-02-08 00:00:00 UTC	2021-02-15 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Feb 15	2021-02-15 00:00:00 UTC	2021-02-22 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Feb 22	2021-02-22 00:00:00 UTC	2021-03-01 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Mar 1	2021-03-01 00:00:00 UTC	2021-03-08 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Mar 8	2021-03-08 00:00:00 UTC	2021-03-15 00:00:00 UTC	1	1
Mar 15	2021-03-15 00:00:00 UTC	2021-03-22 00:00:00 UTC	1	1
Mar 22	2021-03-22 00:00:00 UTC	2021-03-29 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Mar 29	2021-03-29 00:00:00 UTC	2021-04-05 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Apr 5	2021-04-05 00:00:00 UTC	2021-04-12 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Apr 12	2021-04-12 00:00:00 UTC	2021-04-19 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Apr 19	2021-04-19 00:00:00 UTC	2021-04-26 00:00:00 UTC	0	0
Apr 26	2021-04-26 00:00:00 UTC	2021-05-03 00:00:00 UTC	1	1

What Hacker News says

14 sources

networkimprov·May 1, 2021

Have you looked through the FAQ and protocol draft? https://mnmnotmail.org/faq.html https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/Protocol.md The mnm client app isn't chat-oriented like Slack & Discord, altho it does provide presence status for contacts who've opted into that.

In The ransomware surge

networkimprov·Mar 20, 2021

Author here, AMA! Follow: https://twitter.com/mnmnotmail Protocol: https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/Protocol.md

In Show HN: Demo of mnm, an open source project to replace email & SMTP

networkimprov·Mar 12, 2021

mnm author here, AMA. Related links: home page: https://mnmnotmail.org/ on Twitter: https://twitter.com/mnmnotmail client demo: https://mnmnotmail.org/demo.html TMTP protocol: https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/Protocol.md

In Show HN: FAQ for mnm, an open source project to replace email/SMTP

networkimprov·Jan 17, 2021

Please clarify. I don't use go fmt because mnm makes heavy use of the filesystem API, and the error-handling boilerplate for rarely-occurring, unrecoverable errors is painfully high. See also https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/codestyle.t...

In Mnm – an open source project to replace email and SMTP

networkimprov·Jan 17, 2021

The protocol draft: https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/Protocol.md And yes, TMTP will see a lot more revision, and real-world use, before it's proposed to any standards body. (I'm the author.)

In Mnm – an open source project to replace email and SMTP

networkimprov·Jan 17, 2021

Author here. Sorry to be late to the party. AMA. Follow mnm! https://twitter.com/mnmnotmail To address some comments... The protocol[1] has two layers, altho that's not emphasized in the draft. The outer layer covers posting messages for recipients. The inner layer describes message contents, and isn't enforced by the server (see protocol #7 Post //datahead segment). You can do special-purpose apps with the outer layer without supporting the inner if you don't send messages to normal clients. EDIT: The protocol will see many more revisions (some already planned), and real-world use, before it's proposed to a standards body. This isn't a drop-in/swap-out replacement for email. It's a (far) better way of doing electronic correspondence. It will take some years to build the community and infrastructure necessary for TMTP to widely supplant S

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MTP. It's been suggested recently that I draft an architecture doc for TMTP[2], which will also discuss infrastructure. Part of that infrastructure involves "marketplace" sites which verify members' real-life identities and let people make contact with folks outside their normal circles (e.g. work, school, community, hobbies/interests). Most professional organizations would run marketplace sites for their members. I gather that the IETF has (repeatedly) stated that it is not interested in adjusting SMTP to solve "the spam problem". [3] Re end-to-end encryption, that can be considered for the inner layer protocol. I don't rule it out, but it's not a priority at present. If successful, "mnm" won't be the only implementation of TMTP. Maybe some other client will have a better name. (OTOH, Slack did well, and that's a pretty terrible name for a workplace tool ;-) EDIT2: SMTP and related protocols have no effective defense against phishing. A large fraction of phishing attempts originate at authenticated domains, like Gmail. --- [1] https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/Protocol.md [2] https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/issues/5 [3] https://www.rhyolite.com/anti-spam/you-might-be.html

In Mnm – an open source project to replace email and SMTP

nobody9999·Jan 16, 2021

>I was looking for protocol descriptions in how this could work. Author said people would be more impressed by code - but I think a protocol spec along with a reference implementation would be useful. I went and looked for a protocol spec as well. When I didn't see anything concrete on the site in the submission title, I poked around the comments a bit more and found a link to the Github issue[0] requesting detail with respect to the architecture of the TMTP protocol. I further poked around in the appropriate places[1] but found nothing remotely related. The protocol spec[2], while useful in defining the control mechanisms and message formats is vague or silent when it comes to a variety (too many to list completely here) of functional, operational and implementation issues. A comparison of TMTP's spec with SMTP[3] ("the protocol at the

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root of all these problems"[2] with messaging), is quite illuminating. While SMTP by itself lacks a variety of features, it provides a robust, interoperable architecture that's broadly supported and has been augmented repeatedly by other protocols (e.g., MIME, DMARC/DKIM, SMTP-AUTH, LDAP, etc.) to provide such features. It's not clear to me that mnm/TMTP has been fleshed out enough to provide a real alternative to SMTP+extensions. Rather, it appears to be another (there are many) client/server messaging application that's not interoperable. Should these issues be addressed, discussed and refined in the appropriate forums[4], It's possible that TMTP could turn out to be a viable replacement for SMTP. I applaud the authors' work and hope they have much success with their entry in the messaging app market. [0] https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/issues/5 [1] https://www.ietf.org [2] https://mnmnotmail.org/rationale.html [3] https://tools.ietf.org/rfc/rfc5321.txt [4] https://www.ietf.org/how/wgs/ Edit: Fixed links.

In Mnm – an open source project to replace email and SMTP

kyrra·Jan 16, 2021

The (I believe) author of this posted it on the golang subreddit a few days ago. It looks like he's very open to contributions if you're willing to help. https://www.reddit.com/r/golang/comments/kxe5bi/mnm_an_open_... The one interesting link from his post, is a link to the spec itself. https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/Protocol.md

In Mnm – an open source project to replace email and SMTP

based2·Jan 16, 2021

https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/issues/5 create TMTP architecture doc

In Mnm – an open source project to replace email and SMTP

networkimprov·Jan 16, 2021

This. And the effectiveness of targeted phishing is why we must replace SMTP-based email, and eventually block SMTP on public networks. It isn't suited to the 21st Century Internet. Hence, the mnm project[1] (open source client & server) and TMTP[2][3]. [1] https://mnmnotmail.org [2] https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/Protocol.md [3] https://mnmnotmail.org/rationale.html

In “Appointment” as professor at Harvard was an elaborate phishing attack

networkimprov·Jan 5, 2021

I've only just begun publicizing it, after getting the client & server implementations to a point where folks can evaluate them. Protocol: https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/Protocol.md Why TMTP? https://mnmnotmail.org/rationale.html Follow: https://twitter.com/mnmnotmail

In Slack is down

networkimprov·Jan 4, 2021

It's largely overlooked that the success of Slack & MS Teams is partly due to the cybercrime portal that email has become. IOW, you don't get phished in your org's Slack chats. To prevent phishing, any chat service will suffice; an open protocol isn't necessary, as you don't intend to engage with ppl outside your org. The essential problem IMO is how to replace SMTP. No one has proposed and implemented an alternative, to my knowledge. So I decided to[1]. The current draft omits federation (although I wouldn't rule it out in all cases yet). [1] https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/Protocol.md

In Slack is down

networkimprov·Dec 31, 2020

If anyone's interested in a modern rethink of SMTP, here's TMTP: Why TMTP? https://mnmnotmail.org/rationale.html Protocol draft: https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/Protocol.md Twitter: https://twitter.com/mnmnotmail

In Msmtp: About Authentication Methods

networkimprov·Dec 15, 2020

I suppose I could have borrowed aspects of IMAP, but the result wouldn't interoperate with other IMAP software. Here's the protocol draft: https://github.com/networkimprov/mnm/blob/master/Protocol.md

In Show HN: mnm, an open source project to replace email and SMTP