At 15:51 25/02/04 -0800, Bill McQuillan wrote:
What is the usefulness of a header field containing a URI which only
fetches another copy of the same message?
It is extraordinarily useful in group discussions by email, in which a
participant creates messages with direct, easy-to-retrieve references to
previous messages. While looking at one message, one can cut-and-paste the
URI into another message under construction. It is especially useful when
reading messages without a live Internet connection (*).
The alternative is to spend time online rummaging around in the mail
archives to find the same message in archived form, which can be a pain,
especially when the archives are not well organized.
Partly because of this feature, but also because of the way the archives
are presented, I have found the W3C mailing lists service to be the most
usable of any that I have experienced.
#g
--
(*) I sometimes think that there are protocol designers who take an
always-on Internet connection for granted. One doesn't have to live in
some desert region of the world to be reliant on dial-up for Internet access.
------------
Graham Klyne
For email:
http://www.ninebynine.org/#Contact