Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!iuvax!mailrus!sharkey!oxtrap!mudos!mju
From: mju@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us (Marc Unangst)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Proliferation of "Re^n:" in subject lines
Message-ID: <532.24B7A45F@mudos.ann-arbor.mi.us>
Date: 9 Jul 89 07:00:57 GMT
Organization: A neat desk is a sign of a crazy person.
Lines: 54

In article <89Jul2.110144edt.10370@neat.ai.toronto.edu>, lamy@ai.utoronto.ca (Jean-Francois Lamy) writes:
 >mcb@ncis.tis.llnl.gov (Michael C. Berch) writes:
 >>Over the last week or so I've noticed the proliferation of subject
 >>lines beginning with "Re^n:", as in 
 >
 >It's an nn-ism.  I guess No News is good news for a lot of people, enough
 >to rewire their brain and switch news readers (the "... writes:" line with
 >no message-id is also a hint that the poster is using nn).  But I do wish
 >nn had this feature excised.

Ya know, I really hate to say this, but...

The "Re^n:" business is a direct violation of RFC-1036:

...
2.1.4.  Subject

    The "Subject" line (formerly "Title") tells what the message is
    about.  It should be suggestive enough of the contents of the
    message to enable a reader to make a decision whether to read the
|   message based on the subject alone.  If the message is submitted in
|   response to another message (e.g., is a follow-up) the default
|   subject should begin with the four characters "Re:", and the
    "References" line is required.  For follow-ups, the use of the
    "Summary" line is encouraged.
...
2.2.5.  References

    This field lists the Message-ID's of any messages prompting the
    submission of this message.  It is required for all follow-up
    messages, and forbidden when a new subject is raised.
    Implementations should provide a follow-up command, which allows a
|   user to post a follow-up message.  This command should generate a
|   "Subject" line which is the same as the original message, except
|   that if the original subject does not begin with "Re:" or "re:", the
|   four characters "Re:" are inserted before the subject.  If there is
    no "References" line on the original header, the "References" line
    should contain the Message-ID of the original message (including the
    angle brackets).  If the original message does have a "References"
    line, the follow-up message should have a "References" line
    containing the text of the original "References" line, a blank, and
    the Message-ID of the original message.
...

Lines that begin with "|" are of special interest.  You should note that
the subject header in a followup MUST begin with the four characters
"Re: ".  Shape up or ship out, nn.

--  
Marc Unangst
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