ietf-822
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Re: New I-D: draft-koch-subject-tags-considered-00.txt

2004-11-30 22:56:41

Let me quote selectively.

Steve Dorner writes:
I just spoke to a fellow with a very interesting email proxy system that unfortunately works by using such []'ed cruft in subject fields. I suppressed my gag reflex, because I understood why he was doing it. Most current MUA's hide all headers except a specific few, so if you want to communicate anything to the end user, the only way you have to do it is by scribbling on those few visible fields.
...
A further step that would probably be interesting would be to simply remove such strings from subjects displayed in message lists.

Could this be generalized as a recommendation to MUA's? I dunno. It seems like a feature that's useful a lot of the time, and harmful occasionally (eg, when there is real information inside []'s for some reason).

Sounds like an arms race.

1. Proxy adds header fields.
2. MUA learns to show only a select few fields.
3. Proxy sticks information into subject using []
4. MUA learns to suppress [].

In step 5, the proxy must stop using [] and switch to something it's more difficult to suppress.

The same situation applies to disclaimer/advert footers, I suppose.

Arnt


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