Harold I / Dan K said:
A *lot* of POP-using programs have the "Leave Mail On Server" option.
And a lot of people have used "Leave Mail On Server" as a poor man's
1-folder IMAP, leading POP providers to implement mail retaining policies
of the "RETR it once and it's gone, whether you DELEted it or not".
This is shown up in RFC 1939 (current definition of POP3) section 8:
.....In these situations and others, users and
vendors of POP3 clients have discovered that the combination of using
the UIDL command and not issuing the DELE command can provide a weak
version of the "maildrop as semi-permanent repository" functionality
normally associated with IMAP.
...........and in response, server operators are recommended to:
* Enforce a site policy regarding mail retention on the server.
Sites are free to establish local policy regarding the storage and
retention of messages on the server, both read and unread. For
example, a site might delete unread messages from the server after
60 days and delete read messages after 7 days. Such message
deletions are outside the scope of the POP3 protocol and are not
considered a protocol violation.
Dan says:
Well, yes I guess it "their" server (somebody's). There are a few things
obviously
desireble in POPX thet aren't in there. (deliver without Mime attachments as a
preview, for
instance).
Seems like IMAP is kind of too much, and Pop3 is too little for a lot of users.
I wouldn't like it if the server did this. I'd rather have a fixed limit in
size, and a
warning via email when its almost full, and have it reject messages beyond that
size. But
that's me. I guess leaving it to the site is just a part of reality.
A tiny extention to allow "push" email just broadcasting the subject lines;
(possible
encrypted) and headers generally would be cool. Like blackberry's protocol but
not
proprietary.
In any case I think pretty soon a total rethink of email is in order... re
authentication/encryption/spam. but it's gotta be compatible and this will be
tricky, to
say the least.
regs
Dan