Tony Finch wrote:
> On Fri, 18 Jan 2008, J D Falk wrote:
>> How many people here have EVER seen a real message (not just a test to
>> see if it'd work) with multiple addresses in the From: header?
>
> I have sent messages From: multiple authors, e.g. a party invitation from
> me and my wife. It was not an interop success :-) Recipients' clients
> would typically ignore one of the addresses or get slightly confused, both
> when displaying the message and when replying to it.
There are two different issues in this thread that I think ought to dominate:
1. Multiple From addresses are in the RFC2822 standard, folks. The capability
was defined in RFC 733 (1977) and has been retained in every iteration up to
the current RFC2822 revision work. That means that it has gone through
repeated review by the email standards community. Why in the world would it be
appropriate for the DKIM working group to debate its legitimacy?
2. While it is certainly useful to prune obsolete constructs, it is dangerous
to assume that what a particular segment of the community is familiar with is
all that ought to be allowed. Email is a very general-purpose tool for human
communications. Human communications is a very, very rich space. Just
because on or another person -- or lots of them -- do not use a feature does
not mean its use can be ignored or denied.
When one standard is built on another, the new one acts to its own peril when
it seeks to impose restrictions on the use of the base specification,
especially when the restrictions are arbitrary.
Emphatic +1 on all points.
Ned
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