Re: [ietf-smtp] Curious, with this now being associated to emailcore, sh

On 7/21/20 9:08 PM, John C Klensin wrote:

> > I think it's slightly deeper than that, which is that every
> > time one party adds a new header field, some number of other
> > parties decide that they can delete or modify that field, or
> > use it to validate or invalidate the message.   So random
> > parties making random decisions about message headers are
> > detrimental to email reliability.
> I agree with that.  But that is the justification for registered
> header field names, preferably well-documented and stable ones.
I suspect this is not an issue that can be addressed by any combination 
of registration and/or field-naming constraints in the absence of 
instructions to message-handling software about which fields (if any) 
they can add, modify, or delete.
I love the format's extensibility but I suspect there's a point of 
diminishing returns.   The message header has become a garbage dumping 
ground, and it might need some cleaning up.
Keith


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