The only reason that MIME applies to HTTP is that RFC 2616 explicitly
declares it to be so (modulo some small changes). So the MIME standards do
not currently apply to Netnews (but our draft will fix that).
Incorrect; RFC 1036 specifically mentions that news articles use the
text message format defined in RFC 822, and RFC 2047 explicitly revises
the RFC 822 ABNF for phrase and for comment to permit encoded-words
(see RFC 2047 section 5 which clearly and unambiguously spells this out).
So in the specific case of encoded-words (which is the topic under
discussion), MIME has applied to news for at least a decade (since
RFC 1342).
RFC 1036's claims notwithstanding, news and email use different message
formats, with different header fields and different interpretations and syntax
for some of the fields that share a common name. So it's not clear that
2047's revision of the 822 syntax for the purpose of emailed MIME messages
automatically applies to use of a syntax that was derived from 822 for the use
in netnews. Second, it's doubtful that changing the format of netnews would
have been consistent with the 822ext working group's charter. Third,
applicability of MIME to Usenet is not something that has been considered when
advancing MIME on the standards track. If we were to consider the rate of
adoption of MIME within the Usenet community, MIME would probably best be
classified as "experimental" for that purpose. Finally it would set a bad
precedent if every revision of 822 for email purposes were deemed to change
every use of an 822-like syntax (for instance, in HTTP or SIP). It's good
that we borrow proven designs for use in new protocols, but each protocol has
its own needs and its own user community and different protocols need to be
allowed to evolve separately.
That's not to say that I think using MIME (and 2047) with Usenet is a bad idea
- there is at least some commonality between the design constraints of MIME
and those of Usenet messages, there are many user agents that deal with
both, and there are several gateways between the two worlds. So it is useful if
there's commonality between the message formats. It just seems a stretch to
declare by fiat that MIME automatically applies to usenet.
Keith