From: Matthias Andree (ma@dt.e-technik.uni-dortmund.de)
Date: Sat Jun 05 2004 - 08:47:01 CDT
Eivind Tagseth <eivindt@multinet.no> writes:
> If the result is a discussion of the harmfulness of "Re: ", and one
> participant thinks he's debating the harmfulness of "Re: " while the
> other thinks the discussion is about "Sv: " then the confusion will be
> seen by other readers as well. I guess this is something that could
> be mentioned in USEAGE?
Is there any other location than the very beginning of the Subject
header's content where this would occur? I don't see one. A reasonably
chosen subject with name would be:
Subject: "Sv:" considered harmful
Subject: "Re:" considered harmful
Subject: "AW:" considered annoying
In no case would the Re: constitute the very beginning of the header,
because of the antecedent double neutral quote mark - so a German
newsreader would still display:
Betreff: "Re:" considered harmful
Omitting the quotes would then cause
Subject: Re: considered harmful
to be translated to:
Betreff: AW: considered harmful
which is indeed confusing.
The other question is if a newsreader should localize headers,
particularly if the headers are editable in raw form. I believe it
shouldn't or it should at least offer an option (button, whatever) in a
PROMINENT location to show the headers as they are going to be sent so
the skilled user can check what his newsreader does, without requiring
support or test postings.
-- Matthias Andree Encrypted mail welcome: my GnuPG key ID is 0x052E7D95