It seems that the addressing header fields (To:, From:, Cc:, Sender:,
Reply-To:, Resent-*) are overloaded in meanings to a confusing degree.
I get messages have To: fields containing: my email address, a mailing list
address, a mailing list member's address (usually in a reply from another
mailing list member), or gibberish (usually on spam). The same thing
happens on the other fields.
These fields are inherited from a time when it was thought that e-mail
generally had a source person and a set of destination persons and since
then each new mechanism (auto-responders, mailing lists, forwarders,...)
has tried to shoehorn new conventions into the existing ones which seem to
me to be more appropriate to paper memos.
I think that it would be useful to recognize more roles in the interchange
of e-mail and to further allow for straight-forward addition of new roles
(perhaps even ad hoc).
e.g.: (intentionally ugly example syntax!)
To(list): Next Generation e-Mail <mail-ng(_at_)imc(_dot_)org>
From(individual): Joe Listmember <joe(_at_)example(_dot_)com>
is distributed by Majordomo as:
To(list): Next Generation e-Mail <mail-ng(_at_)imc(_dot_)org>
From(individual): Joe Listmember <joe(_at_)example(_dot_)com>
To(individual): Bill McQuillan <McQuilWP(_at_)pobox(_dot_)com>
and then from pobox.com as:
To(list): Next Generation e-Mail <mail-ng(_at_)imc(_dot_)org>
From(individual): Joe Listmember <joe(_at_)example(_dot_)com>
To(individual): Bill McQuillan <McQuilWP(_at_)pobox(_dot_)com>
From(forwarder): <postmaster(_at_)pobox(_dot_)com>
To:(individual): Bill Mcquillan <billmcq(_at_)isp(_dot_)example(_dot_)com>
Please understand that this is just to give a simple example so that it can
be torn apart. :-)
--
Bill McQuillan <McQuilWP(_at_)pobox(_dot_)com>