I know (I hope not) this is probably not going anywhere once a certain set
of people get involved, but I have I question about any effort to offer MUAs
ways to set the Message Attributes at the server storage.
For example. We have a server-side message forum that is available online
via;
- Telnet (ANSI/Console Text Mode),
- Web Mail (Browser)
- GUI frontend (client side Exes using mail API), and
- exposed as a Local Newsgroup for Newsgroups readers.
For the more traditional first 3 methods above, the message forum may offer
message attributes as so:
From:
To:
[_] Private
Of course, for a newsgroup, the idea of a "Private Message" and similar
attributes are not typical or inherently part of the 822 format design.
Right now, our nntp server will expose the message with a header:
X-WcMsg-Attr: Pvt Rcvd
showing the message was private and received.
It would be nice to have MUA begin to learn more about such common message
attributes
Similarity,
At a minimum, for responses, our NNTP Server is designed the "Follow the
Attribute" of the original message. So if a poster created a private
message, the newsreader base response will automatically inherent this
attribute.
The same is true with the traditional ways, but only by setting the default
value for the private bit.
The question is, has there been any discussions along these lines in maybe
looking at some "method" via either some SUBJECT line attribute tag,
"Subject: [PVT] ....." or the first line of the body: Private: Yes, etc,
to kludge such an idea?
What other similar system available offer such ideas? I would like to see
if its possible to standardize some of this stuff.
Comments?
Thanks
Hector Santos, Santronics Software, Inc.
Wildcat! Interactive Net Serve
http://www.winserver.com