Subject: Re: #1078 Newsgroups: header in email

From: John Stanley <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 09:35:22 -0800 (PST)

Harald Alvestrand <harald@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>The text you suggested then said:

>The Newsgroups header specifies the newsgroup(s) to which a News
>article has been posted. It MAY be used in an Email message to
>indicate that it was also posted as an article to those newsgroups,

A Newsgroups header field in email does NOT always indicate that a message 
was also posted as an article to news. If we say that is what it means, we 
will be wrong.

>Before, I didn't care about these headers in practice, because I was using 
>a mail client that didn't think of itself as a news client.

Some of us care about getting it right even if we don't personally use a 
client that contains a feature (or a bug).

Are you officially reopening a section of the draft that is patently 
incorrect so it can be fixed, or just using your position as chair to 
comment on something whilst we cannot? Have we received a special 
dispensation from the Pope of IETF to leap across into email and define 
headers for email, or are we still limited to news?

---

From: Harald Alvestrand <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 2006 22:34:27 +0200

John Stanley wrote:
> A Newsgroups header field in email does NOT always indicate that a 
> message was also posted as an article to news. If we say that is what 
> it means, we will be wrong.
We don't say it - that's what Charles suggested we should say, but the 
WG consensus was to not add it.
>
>> Before, I didn't care about these headers in practice, because I was 
>> using a mail client that didn't think of itself as a news client.
>
> Some of us care about getting it right even if we don't personally use 
> a client that contains a feature (or a bug).
Before, I did not care what Charles sent to this mailing list, because 
it had no practical consequences for me, and did not affect the 
development of the document.
Now, the fact that he was not doing what he suggested the WG mandate has 
caused me extra work, so I commented on it.
I did not intend to reopen the issue; I don't see that any new evidence 
has been put forward that is likely to change the consensus of the WG.
> dispensation from the Pope of IETF to leap across into email and 
> define headers for email, or are we still limited to news?
No.
The draft is currently "correct" - it says nothing.