On Thu, 2008-03-27 at 17:35 +0000, Stephen Farrell wrote:
Dave Crocker wrote:
Stephen,
I fear that this is a real matter of technical confusion -- not just
literary taste -- and that the source of confusion is common to the
topic and not just how the document is written.
That's not to say that the writing might not be contributing to the
confusion.
So let's see if we can have a brief dialogue to clarify the points of
distinction, which might make better wordsmithing easier.
The current wording is trying to emphasize the difference between
reference and referrant, or the thing and a label for the thing.
Identity is meant to refer to the thing itself, such as you, where as
identifier is meant to refer to a label, such as "Stephen Farrell".
From my own historical confusion in these sorts of discussions, as well
as the confusion i keep seeing in others, making and maintaining the
distinction between thing and label is very real challenge, often failed.
To the particulars of the document:
A domain name is an identifier. The organization owning it is the
identity. The trademarked name of the company is another identifier.
Sometimes the domain name is treated as the online name of the company,
as well as its "address". That's ok. It's still an identifier, even if
it is thought of as similar to the registered corporate name.
(Distinguishing between domain name and company name might be important
for assessment services, but it isn't for DKIM signature validation.)
So how about adding a paragraph like the above to the document?
It'd help me at least.
The only thing that worries me is someone will tie their reputation
system to the identity instead of the identifier. There is lots of
advice for a company (an identity) to put different types of mail
streams on different IPs. So logically one would use different DKIM
identifiers to accomplish the same thing with DKIM.
I know we can't tell receivers what to do, but I'm sure we don't want
signers going to great lengths to create new identities.
--
:: Jeff Macdonald | Director of Messaging Technologies
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