On Wed October 27 2004 13:38, Keith Moore wrote:
1. I can certainly see using this field as providing a way to pass
along a message to others (who might not have received a copy of the
message) without actually having to send them a copy. Instead of
forwarding the message to them, paste the URL into the message text.
Well I suppose it is possible. It sure sounds like a heck of a lot of
effort compared to simply invoking a "forward message" function
in an MUA
URLs to message archives are useful for references. I could send a
message to you referring to another message. You could choose to view
that message or not depending on your needs. Perhaps you might have seen
that message already and remember it, or perhaps you might believe what
I have to say without consulting the references.
Here's how I see using this: I want to send a message to you that
includes some references. So I go and find those references -
in my own personal email folders, or in some public archives, or
whereever. For each of those references that are in my personal
email folders, if they have archived-at fields, I can use the URIs
in those fields as references in the message I send to you.
2. Another thing that would be extremely useful is to be able to see
a message in context - in relation to other messages in the same
discussion. So if an archive points to a message in a read-only
IMAP mailbox, the context could be supplied by other messages in
that mailbox. Or if an archive points to a HTML document on an HTTP
server, the context could be supplied by "next in thread" style
links. In this case the Archived-at field serves as much to point
to a collection of messages as to a particular message within that
collection.
Yes, context is useful, but that context is provided by the
related messages and the archive infrastructure (or, if I have
access to the messages in an MUA, by that MUAs features).
List-Archive can point to such an archive.
Yes, but list-archive doesn't indicate a particular message. It's
like being able to reference a multi-volume set of books without
being able to indicate the relevant volume and page.
I could imagine automatically adding Archived-At fields to about 90% of
my incoming list mail, and having the URIs in those fields point to my
own personal archives of those messages. That way, I could easily
reference messages in those archives when corresponding with others.
Keith