Errors-to: owner-drums@CS.UTK.EDU
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 95 13:20:03 +0200
Message-Id: <9509141120.AA09149@mercutio.admin.kth.se>
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From: Olle Jarnefors <ojarnef@admin.kth.se>
To: <Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no>
Cc: drums@CS.UTK.EDU, Olle Jarnefors <ojarnef@admin.kth.se>
In-Reply-To: <199509140914.FAA22974@CS.UTK.EDU>
 (Thu, 14 Sep 1995 11:14:11 +0200; From: <Harald.T.Alvestrand@uninett.no>)
Subject: Re: Another header-munging example.....

Harald,

You wrote:

> That being said, I think that it is possible to do useful things by
> defining new 822 headers; I just don't believe that it will be simple
> to get agreement on them.

Perhaps not, but the work must start sometime, somewhere. With
the increasingly sophisticated UAs that are getting available
it's really a shame that even those simple mailing-list-oriented
functions that I outlined in my first message can't be
implemented, because of inadequate communication protocols.
With the rapid growth of the number of new, very inexperienced
Internet users, and the steadily decreasing signal-to-noise
ratio of Usenet newsgroups, there is a growing need for
electronic group communication using Internet mailing lists,
provided UAs can offer a _user-friendly_ interface to them.

> But if your asbestos suit is suffering from disuse, DO help by writing
> a proposal to do something! (preferably in the form of a charter/draft
> pair).

I'm really the wrong person to have any organizing role in this.
I have been to one IETF meeting, missed this summer's in my own
home town, and really have little hope to be able to attend any
future IETF. But I'm certainly ready to contribute to the
technical discussion, both with ideas for tasks to work on, for
solutions, or for compromises (and in this particular thread
seems to have been the only person with something technically
constructive to say).

> BTW, in my "area description" Web pages 
> (http://domen.uninett.no/~hta/ietf/apps
> /), I've suggested the "header-people"
> list as an useful place for "general E-mail discussions", after a hint from 
> John. (I'm not on it yet - that's one reason why there's no subscription info 
> on the page....)
> It's a relatively low-volume, high-competence list according to John.

I was able to get on the header-people list in February, after
some administrative delay. This was after its deconnection from
the comp.mail.headers news group. There have been virtually no
discussions on that list since then. I don't know if this list
is archived. Couldn't see anything promising on
ftp://mc.lcs.mit.edu/pub/.

/Olle