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From: rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.sendmail
Subject: Re: better return-receipt messages
Message-ID: <1991Jun13.143702.14063@mp.cs.niu.edu>
Date: 13 Jun 91 14:37:02 GMT
References: <1991Jun13.121110.27660@dartvax.dartmouth.edu>
Organization: Northern Illinois University
Lines: 35

In article <1991Jun13.121110.27660@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> steve@avalon.dartmouth.edu (Steve Campbell) writes:
>We would like to improve on the return-receipt messages that sendmail
>generates.  The present messages consist entirely of headers, with the
>only clue to the message's purpose being the phrase "Return Receipt"
>hidden in the Subject line.  Many users are confused by these messages.
>Even a simple 1 or 2 line message body explaining what the message means
>would be a great improvement.
>
 Three points:

  1.  Users really should not be using 'Return-Receipt-To:'.  It does not
      answer the problem of concern to most users.  It is mainly
      useful as a debugging tool for email administrators.  When viewed
      from this point of view, returning the headers is essential.

  2.  You ask for a message body explaining what the message means.  What
      it really means is:  "The message was accepted by a mailer with the
      'l' (local) flag set in the mailer definition."  Is this sort of
      message really going to enlighten your users?  In most cases the
      user sending the message would like to know whether the recipient
      has read it, not merely whether it has been deposited in a mailbox
      on a machine which recipient may or may not occasionally log into.
      (Note that in most setups, delivery to /dev/null will produce a
      Return-Receipt).

  3.  There is a group currently involved in discussions on the general
      topic of email delivery and/or receipt notification.  The administrative
      address of the mailing list is <ietf-ack-request@ics.uci.edu>.  Thus any
      changes you make may be premature.

-- 
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  Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science               <rickert@cs.niu.edu>
  Northern Illinois Univ.
  DeKalb, IL 60115                                   +1-815-753-6940