Return-Receipt (Danger Will Robinson!)

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2 total messages Started by Robert L. Howard Wed, 06 Jan 1993 14:56

#80

Author: Robert L. Howard
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1993 14:56

37 lines
1940 bytes

Okay, I recall that this was discussed once before.  I know, I know,
this is likely to cause a flamefest...

What happened to the discussion on using MIME to handle a MUA
level Return-Receipt (RR) mechanism?

Some points:

1.  It MUST be voluntary.  Ideal behavior would be for a MIME
    MUA to ask, "Sender has requested return-receipt, would you
    like to return-receipt on this message? (y/n)".  MUAs
    could have user configuration parameters to a) always send
    RR without asking b) always ask or c) never ask and never 
    send RRs.

2.  I don't particulary care how this is to be handled MIME header-
    wise (could someone recall previous discussions).

3.  There should be a unique ID string type thing for RR message
    parts so that when the receipt comes back the MUA can easily
    match it to the message the receipt is for.

Has anyone tried this yet (perhaps at an X-header level)?

[Flame-proof suit on]

Thanks,
Robert
--
| Robert L. Howard              |   Georgia Tech Research Institute     |
| robert.howard@matd.gatech.edu |   MATD Laboratory                     |
| (404) 528-7165                |   Atlanta, Georgia  30332             |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
| "See, when the GOVERNMENT spends money, it creates jobs; whereas when |
| the money is left in the hands of TAXPAYERS, God only knows what they |
| do with it.  Bake it into pies, probably.  Anything to avoid creating |
| jobs." -- Dave Barry                                                  |

Re: Return-Receipt (Danger Will Robinson!)

#81

Author: Keith Moore
Date: Wed, 06 Jan 1993 17:26

38 lines
2277 bytes

In article <rhoward.726332201@matd>, rhoward@matd.gatech.edu (Robert L. Howard) writes:
> What happened to the discussion on using MIME to handle a MUA
> level Return-Receipt (RR) mechanism?
> 
> Some points:
> 
> 1.  It MUST be voluntary.  Ideal behavior would be for a MIME
>     MUA to ask, "Sender has requested return-receipt, would you
>     like to return-receipt on this message? (y/n)".  MUAs
>     could have user configuration parameters to a) always send
>     RR without asking b) always ask or c) never ask and never 
>     send RRs.
> 
> 2.  I don't particulary care how this is to be handled MIME header-
>     wise (could someone recall previous discussions).
> 
> 3.  There should be a unique ID string type thing for RR message
>     parts so that when the receipt comes back the MUA can easily
>     match it to the message the receipt is for.

I don't see any problem with it, so long as it's clear that what's
being provided is an (optional) "read" acknowledgement, not a
"delivery" acknowledgement.  Basically someone needs to define a MIME
content type for read acknowledgement requests and another type for
read acknowledgements, and define how a supporting mail reader should
act when it receives a message containing a read acknowledgement
request.  Also needed is a definition of exactly what a read
acknowledgement means.

Note that the mail reader, having generated a read acknowledgement,
should probably mark the message in some way, so that duplicate read
acknowledgements are never generated for a message.

The term "return receipt" seems ambiguous.  It seems like some of the
past flaming (thought not all of it) has been due to confusion about
whether delivery acks or read acks were being discussed.

Keith Moore

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