----- Original Message -----
From: "Arnt Gulbrandsen" <arnt(_at_)gulbrandsen(_dot_)priv(_dot_)no>
To: <ietf-822(_at_)imc(_dot_)org>
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2004 7:35 AM
Subject: Re: Message Attributes
You probably don't want any mail system extension to be fundamentally
incompatible with IMAP...
I viewing this is a possible extension to an open standard 2822 message
format which any frontend, gateway and backend system can use, gateway or
interchange with.
For example. our system supports 5 different mail networks.
- Internet
- Fidonet
- UTI (Universal Text Interface)
- QWK/OPX
With the exception for a few items in internet RFC x822 format, all have
minimum common mail header format attributes
From:
To:
Subject:
Date:
MessageID:
ReturnReceipt:
Private:
Independent of any specific frontend and compatible backend, I believe, a
few attributes have been missing in the internet for a long time. I think
there are a small set of very common attributes that could useful in today's
environment and into the future.
Historically, Internet email was a private mail system between two people.
Internet News was public postings. But more and more systems are offering
conferences with public/private ideas. You can have a support forum for
example that allows both public and private mail. In networks like Fidonet
or Internet News, the gating of this was optional. For example, private
postings would remain local, not get exported. The gating of a private
message would not be guaranteed to remain private at the receiver downlink.
I believe if such attributes were available, MUA will evolve to use them.
Thanks
Sincerely,
Hector Santos, CTO
Santronics Software, Inc.
http://www.santronics.com
305-431-2846 Cell
305-248-3204 Office
Internet Interview: http://www.geeknewscentral.com/archives/003505.html