Peter Koch <pk(_at_)TechFak(_dot_)Uni-Bielefeld(_dot_)DE> writes:
Dear ``email people'',
motivated by a discussion on the main IETF list a couple of weeks ago I
just submitted this Internet Draft
Title : Subject: [tags] Considered Harmful
Author(s) : P. Koch
Filename : draft-koch-subject-tags-considered-00.txt
Pages : 8
Date : 2004-11-18
Various mailing lists modify the Subject: header field of messages
sent to the list to contain a kind of identifier enclosed in square
brackets. Every now and then this 'feature' is also requested for
the main IETF list. This document collects pros and cons of this
approach, tries to identify the real issue and will, in a later
stage, try to give a recommendation.
A URL for this Internet-Draft is:
http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-koch-subject-tags-considered-00.txt
As others have said cluttering up suposed human readable Subject:
line with these things are a pain. e.g. there are a lot of mails
to Alsa-devel list which have two tags:
Subject: [Alsa-devel] [ALSA - driver 0000659]: ...
It only needs a few Re: on front and no part of real subject is visible
in my mailer's window.
--
The draft is just a request for discussion, I'm not sure which direction (if
any at all) it will take. Those [tags] are a matter of fact and "banning" them
might not lead us anywhere (well, we have BCPs, not WCPs), but collecting and
documenting their drawbacks might still be helpful. One potential outcome could
be a "standardized" way of handling them at the MUA level. However, that may
come close to
<http://www.mail-archive.com/ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org/msg06215.html> "Drunk
Driving on the Internet".
Feedback as well as pointers to any previous discussion of this topic (none
were found it in the archives of *this* list) are welcome!
-Peter