The sequence I want–which could be completely automated–looks like this.

You, a complete stranger, want to send me an email that you’re sure I’ll consider important. So you send it using your email client, annotated with that assurance. My email client responds that, given that I have no idea who you are, I probably won’t get to it any time soon. Your client responds that it will “bet” $1 (or more, depending on my client’s threshold and your level of assurance) that I’ll appreciate it being bumped up in the queue. When I read it, I can either acknowledge the important (and you keep your money) or disagree (in which case I get it). It doesn’t have to be cash, if some other currency will do the trick. And of course the negotiation has to be largely automated (and secure) to be usable.

Sound complicated? Fair enough. But I can’t think of a better way to do prioritization than to let the two parties negotiate it. And I’m assuming 99%+ of messages will use default settings. This only should kick in for people who are inundated by incoming traffic but don’t want to hire someone to screen their messages.

Also, I like that this approach addresses the subjectivity of what constitutes spam.

Case in point: I email many of my work colleagues much more often than I email my wife.

But when that email from her arrives, oh my, it better be in my priority queue