Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!emory!att!ucbvax!TELESYS.NCSC.NAVY.MIL!mark
From: mark@TELESYS.NCSC.NAVY.MIL (Mark L. Williams)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Registered SMTP
Message-ID: <9102141624.AA01275@telesys.ncsc.navy.mil>
Date: 14 Feb 91 16:24:29 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 18

I dropped off a couple of messages supporting a "return receipt" registration
feature for SMTP a while ago.  In thinking about the issue some more, and
reviewing people's worries about excess flurries of acknowledgements being
generated by mailers along the line, it has occurred to me that the 
return message should not be part of SMTP but rather be part of the user's
mail interface.  The only thing that SMTP should support is some sort of 
header line that the mail application can use to determine whether or not
a return message should be sent when the user displays (ok, we can't tell
whether it's actually READ or not) the received message.  I think this
approach is more logical; SMTP almost certainly should not get involved in
sending "I got it" messages anywhere on its own.

Thoughts?

BTW, I still think the capability is needed -- it just needs to be identified
in the right category.

Mark