ietf-822
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Re: Mailing list addition of resent headers

2001-05-22 10:57:51
Then could someone please give an example of a genuine and proper use of
the Resent headers that does not amount to "forwarding"?

1) I frequently get messages that are intended for someone else.
There was only one Moore in our department when I started here;
now there are three Moores in my immediate work group, and people
often send mail to "moore" without thinking.

If I forward such a misdirected message to the correct recipient,
and that person replies,  the reply goes back to me.

If I resend the message, any reply to that message goes to the
addresses in the header of the original message.

More generally, cases arise all the time where I get a message I want someone
else to deal with, and when they reply I want the replies to be directed as if
I wasn't involved. Resend works perfectly in such cases. I use this at least
once or twice a week at a minimum and I routinely receive mail from others that
has been resent in this way with this intention.

Of course you have to use a client that provides this capability. It is one of
my absolute client requirements.

2) I also get messages that are intended for a mail robot.
(people sometimes send messages to the list maintainer rather than to
the list robot).  resend forwards the message to the robot with
the other headers intact, so the robot does the right thing.

Unfortunately, some robots pay attention to resent- headers when they
shouldn't, so this doesn't work as well as one might hope. Hopefully RFC 2822's
new language describing resent- fields will rectify this.

                                Ned