WKD proper behavior on fetch error

[Stefan Claas]

On Sun, Jan 17, 2021 at 4:52 AM raf via Gnupg-users
<gnupg-users at gnupg.org> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Jan 16, 2021 at 02:25:14AM +0100, Ángel <angel at pgp.16bits.net> wrote:
>
> > On 2021-01-15 at 20:34 +0100, Stefan Claas via Gnupg-users wrote:
> > > My intention was only to promote WKD OpenPGP usage for github.io
> > > pages in case people like the idea.
> >
> > This was a good idea, but github pages don't seem to support being used
> > for WKD (due to the mentioned wildcard issues).
>
> Is it a good idea, though? I'm not sure that many
> people would want to change their email addresses so as
> to end in @something.github.io just so that they could
> then use WKD with github.io. How would that even work?

> But that could be due to my ignorance of something
> important, or just a lack of imagination. :-)
> But a bit of googling seems to confirm my thinking.

I am not sure if you followed the whole thread but I used the term
multi-purpose usage key, for users like to going this route.

GitHub, for example, gives users the ability to host an own web page
so that users do not need to sign up for paid services in order to
create rich-content static web pages. If you would visit my GitHub
account at: https://github.com/sac001/ you would see that if you
had a GitHub account as well that you would see one of my email
addresses where I can be reached.

Regarding a multi-purpose key and WKD. I mentioned here already
that a multi-purpose usage key can be used for other tasks as well,
besides popular email. Remember only my old thread where I asked
for some volunteers in the EU, which allows them in their country
to more securely than email and also more decentralized than email
to communicate. I also mentioned in another thread Bitmessage,
which does not have an email address and works as p2p global
Network like a modern and privacy friendly replacement for email.

If you only see, let's say as an email user only, the usage of
OpenPGP software for strict email usage only, then you may
have a limited horizon, for public key cryptography, if you allow me
to say this. WKD, as nobody can deny could be IMHO a fantastic
way for decentralized key distribution, managed under the users
own control, if it would be a bit more flexible in the implementation
of GnuPG and gpg4win. That this may not be a cup of tea for MUA
only users I can understand, but it does not hurt them in any way
when they communicate the email way with their friends they always
do. The more options OpenPGP users have the better. Last but
not least if I had here proposed something that would endager
OpenPGP users in a way that I can not see you can be sure
that I would not have started this thread.

Regards
Stefan