That's why any RFC2822-based solution _must_ deal with the majority
of existing mailing lists, and why I think an RFC2821-based solution
is probably the sanest approach.
Does anyone have any data on how much mailing list traffic is sent how?
I can think of three general categories:
* Hosted systems like Yahoo Groups and Smartlist
* Commercial supported software like LISTSERV and Lyris
* Freeware like Mailman, Sympa, and Majordomo
It seems to me that the first category is a non-issue. There aren't
all that many large list hosts, and if we come up with something
interesting it shouldn't be too hard to persuade them to adjust their
software to deal with it, for competitive reasons if nothing else.
This solves the program for the gazillion lists that they host.
The second category also isn't too much of an issue. If the vendors,
again for competitive reasons, add mailsig support, it'll take one
release cycle for the customers to get that support.
The third category is most difficult. People tend to install the
freeware packages and forget about them, so it'll be a challenge to
get them to upgrade, unless they're behind a mailsig-aware MTA that
handles the signatures automagically.
So does anyone have any numbers for those three categories, and how
they compare to the amount of broadcast mail and one-to-one mail? I
have the feeling that although the third category represents a lot of
the mail that the members of mailsig get, it's only a teensy sliver of
the total amount of non-spam mail sent every day. I know that for the
lists I host for non-techies, I can't tell you how many times I've had
to explain it's not Yahoo Groups, it's not LISTSERV, it's running
right here on my own little server, because they've never heard of
such a thing.
Regards,
John Levine, johnl(_at_)taugh(_dot_)com, Taughannock Networks, Trumansburg NY
http://www.taugh.com