I have just sent the document to internet-drafts. It should be in the
repositories in a day or two. In the meantime, you can download it from
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~moore/internet-drafts/draft-moore-auto-email-response-00.txt
Very nice first cut. I particularly like your use of a responder taxonomy.
Some initial comments:
One type of responder that's missing from your first list is the "change of
address" agent that reports that a given recipient address has changed and
senders should update their address lists.
An interesting wrinkle that comes up in the case of setting the from address
for a service responder is the desire to conduct a sort of "dialogue" with such
an agent. For example, a mailing list maintenance service may send requests for
confirmations that the original sender then replies to. I don't believe this
case changes your general recommendation that the from address in this case
should be one associated with the service maintainer. However, you may want to
mention this case, and point out the potential for mail loops that exists when
the responder does put its own address in the from field.
Section 3 (when to send an automatic response) doesn't seem to deal with the
case of a service responder. It isn't entirely clear to me that your
blanket "In practice there are always reasons to refuse to respond to
requests" necessarily applies to service responders.
You probably should explain what you mean by "Responders SHOULD NOT generate
responses for any null address." in more detail.
I also have to agree that "sorcerer's apprentice" needs to be explained.
Again, a good start on a much-needed document.
Ned