At 11:16 PM +0000 1/29/04, Paul Crowley wrote:
RSS is interesting here but as it stands it's only suitable for
applications where missing an item is not disastrous, or where the
total number of items ever published is few. ...
IMAP and NNTP do not suffer from this problem, because the client can
maintain state on what it's already seen and relay this state to the
server.
So, let me say it again: this list is about determining the needs in
new protocols, not fixing current ones.
To re-cast what is said above in terms appropriate for this list:
"the receiving user agents in the next-generation protocol should not
lose messages just because the user hasn't checked in a while".
--Paul Hoffman, Director
--Internet Mail Consortium