[ih] Email reliability

[Dave Crocker]

On 1/14/2024 12:06 PM, Jack Haverty via Internet-history wrote:
> However it also appears that the "new" message with the altered From 
> field and message body, still has the original Message-ID field that 
> my composer assigned.  But it's no longer the message that I wrote... 
> it's been modified in transit.   Isn't such behavior in violation of 
> something? 


I think it was during the original IFIP WG6.5 discussions, that produced 
the UA/MTA model and led to the start of the X.400 effort, around 
1980... there was a discussion about message IDs and a list of different 
possible identifiers that could be justified for a message, especially 
when end-to-end handling sequences were considered.  I don't remember 
how long the list was, but it was more than a few.

So... You are correct that it is no longer the message that you wrote.  
And you are not correct.

The email community has rather singularly resisted being clear and 
consistent about this point.

So there is a tendency to want to consider a mailing list on a par with 
an MTA, in spite of the former involving a complete delivery and a fresh 
submission/posting.

And from a UX standpoint, after all, the authors and recipients think it 
IS the message that you wrote, no matter what changes the mailing list 
made to it.

d/

-- 
Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
bbiw.net
mast:@dcrocker at mastodon.social