From: Per Abrahamsen (abraham@dina.kvl.dk)
Date: Mon Jul 02 2001 - 05:22:44 CDT
davidsen@prodigy.com (Bill Davidsen) writes:
> Good point. People who care to tell the recipient about PAM can put it
> in as the first line of the text, and it is better there, since it has
> no effect as a header line, and poses no interoperability issues.
The header isn't intended for the situation where it is *sender* who
cares. When the sender care, he will put the information in the body
of the message. It is intended for the situation where it is the
*reader* who cares. By automatically inserting the header, the
posting software can ensure that the information is there.
Some popular programs already do that, so it is existing practice.
However, that no mail reading agents by default act on the information
(some can be configured to do so), makes it unclear whether other
people than those who can read header care.
On the third hand, the references header was generated by followup
agents for years before any reading agents began to use the
information.