From: Jim Brownfield (Jim_Brownfield@radical.com)
Date: Thu Sep 07 2000 - 23:36:21 CDT
I'm new to this mailing list, so I apologize if I'm treading over ground
that has been covered, but I wanted to comment on the references section of
the usefor document. I have the same issue with this section as I had with
Son of 1036. Namely that the References field is being used for two
purposes: threading and grouping. I think trimming the References field
should start with the first reference, and another header field should be
added to allow newsreaders to group threaded messages that have had the
first reference field trimmed.
The reasons I would like to make this change is two-fold; a purist reason,
and a practical reason.
The purist reason is that I think the References field is being used for too
many things and it should be split.
The practical reason is that when postings are mixed between the "Son of
1036" mode and newsreaders that just truncate the references field,
threading becomes very difficult. The References field needs to be a pure
trace of the references to message ids.
In the scenario I'm suggesting, when the first Reference field is added to
the header, a field (called "Reference-head", or whatever would be a good
name) would be added along with the "References" field. On this first
follow-up, the "References-head" would match the "References" field, from
that point on, the "References-head" field would be carried over unchanged
for each follow-up message. When the "References" field is truncated, the
truncation starts with the first reference, and newsreaders use the
"References-head" to group messages that have no common references in the
"References" field.
Example:
1st follow-up message:
References-head: <i4g587y@site1.example>
References: <i4g587y@site1.example>
2nd follow-up message:
References-head: <i4g587y@site1.example>
References: <i4g587y@site1.example> <kgb2231+ee@site2.example>
...
100th follow-up message (from a newsreader that truncates after two
references :) ):
References-head: <i4g587y@site1.example>
References: <222@site1.example> <87tfbyv@site7.example>
I apologize again if I've violated netiquette, but I wanted to make a
comment on this while there was still time :).
-- Jim Brownfield Jim_Brownfield@radical.com Radical System Solutions, Inc. <Makers of RadicalNews>