A new header type, DUALHDR, has been added for people whose main activity
is to post messages to 10 different lists demanding that everyone include
a comprehensive signature file because, you see, the mail software on
their PC doesn't let them see the headers, or at least they haven't
figured how to do it yet, and we can't expect them to spend their
precious time reading the manuals or getting decent software, can we?
DUALHDR is identical to SHORTBSMTP, with the inclusion of a few RFC822
header fields in the message body where even state-of-the-art click-me
mail software will show it. The extra header looks like this:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: Test list <[log in to unmask]>
Poster: John Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: University of XYZ, Florida
Subject: This is a test
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A more useful new feature is list topics. It will be possible to define
up to 11 "topics" for each mailing list, using the new "Topics=" list
header keyword. If topics are defined for a list, users can select which
topics they want to read using the SET command. Posters are supposed to
specify the topic(s) of their message in the subject field, as in:
Subject: Benchmarks,News: Benchmarks for XYZ now available!
If no valid topic is found in the subject field, the reserved topic
"Other" is used to decide which users want to see the message. This makes
it possible to simply turn off the noise from posters who refuse to
conform to the conventions for the subject field. An option to reject
such messages with a list of valid topics would probably result in the
offender posting to all defined topics, which can be done using the
reserved topic name "All". A "Default-Topics=" list header keyword is
available to define the initial topics for new subscribers.
This is not a replacement for sub-lists. You still have a single list,
which means a single archive (with all the messages); digests and indexes
also carry all messages, and no I am not willing to consider making 4095
different types of indexes so Joe and Jack can have just the messages
they wanted. There is no provision for the list owner to "allow" Joe to
listen to topic X while Jack gets to hear about Y, which he can turn off
when he wants, and Z, which he is forced to receive. Anyone who can post
to the list can post to any topic. This is mostly useful for moderated
lists and lists where there are clear divisions of topics and the
audience is tame enough to adopt the convention. This new function is
targeted at the type of lists for which having all messages in the
archive is actually a good thing - it allows people who only have time to
listen to topic X to occasionally search the archives for messages on
other topics. It is also useful for your typical PD-software mailing list
where most people are only interested in announcements of new releases or
serious bug reports, generally coming from a development team which can
be expected to adhere to the subject convention; the long-winded
discussions take place in the "Other" topic.
Eric
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