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Re: retry question

2008-08-10 23:07:27

At 02:50 PM 8/9/2008, Robert A. Rosenberg wrote:
WHY? I have a message that is addressed to 10 people via the TO and CC Headers (I'll ignore the use of BCC). I attempt to send it and (if all 10 addresses were checked) get a mixture of accepted, 4xy, and 5xy responses. While I can see removing the 5xy'ed addresses from the headers, why should I be forced to destroy the 4xy'ed headers just to deliver the message to the others (and thus prevent the 4xy'ed ones from seeing any replies)? A much better way is to submit to the accepted addresses, warn the user of the 5xys so they can be MANUALLY removed, and then requeue the message for a later attempt to submit (with the already accepted during a prior attempt addresses not resent as RCPT-TOs).

Generally, the problem is due to incorrect email addresses. If you are going ahead with the message transmission and provide feedback later, it will confuse the average user. The average user doesn't know or care about 4yz and 5yz. In his/her mind, there are only two states.

In terms of UI, it's easier to ask the user one question than several questions simultaneously. I'm not suggesting anything in the case of SUBMIT as it's up to the implementor to decide what the behavior should be. We also don't have the same interoperability problem as in the case of MTAs.

Regards,
-sm
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