Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!lsuc!dave
From: dave@lsuc.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.mail.headers
Subject: overuse of Received: headers
Message-ID: <1676@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 31-Mar-87 13:06:49 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.1676
Posted: Tue Mar 31 13:06:49 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 1-Apr-87 06:31:02 EST
Sender: dave@lsuc.UUCP
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 30

It seems to me that mail headers are getting a little out of hand.
Mail now accounts for a substantial portion of network traffic
(2/3 of seismo's traffic, for example).

Excess mail headers affect (a) transmission costs; (b) storage
space en route; (c) storage space when messages are saved for
future reference; (d) reading time (and general annoyance) for
those reading Mail without an interface which will suppress such
headers.

News 2.11 has removed headers that had at best marginal utility
(such as Posting-Version and Relay-Version), recognizing that the
cost of transferring and storing these headers exceeded their benefits.

The time has come to address mail headers as well. In particular,
the "Received:" header seems to me to be (a) longer than necessary
(a site and date/time should be enough), and (b) not necessary
at all when the mail is received from a local user (in which
case the "Date:" field suffices) and when the mail is destined
for a local user (in which case the delivery agent will time-stamp
the mail within a few seconds).

Can we at least consider having smail et al. suppress "Received:"
for locally-generated and locally-destined mail?

David Sherman
The Law Society of Upper Canada
Toronto
-- 
{ seismo!mnetor  cbosgd!utgpu  watmath  decvax!utcsri  ihnp4!utzoo } !lsuc!dave