Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!lll-tis!mirsa.inria.Fr!huitema
From: huitema@mirsa.inria.Fr (Christian Huitema)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400
Subject: Re: Fw: Away-service Away-service
Message-ID: <8805191529.AA26163@inria.inria.fr>
Date: 19 May 88 19:33:35 GMT
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> Hello Jacob ...  Your scheme, shown here ...
> 
> > The best solution would be to make the "I am away"-messages into some
> > kind of notification, not an ordinary message.  Then an intelligent 
> > receiving system could recognize them as such and handle them
> > appropriately.  
> 
>  ...  puts the burden on every UA anywhere in the net to undo the error
> of your AWAY-MSG generator which is not caring how many copies of the
> same message it sends to the same recipient.  I cannot in any way
> condone such blatant lack of concern and shifting of responsibility from
> the place that knows what is going on and can easily deal with it, to a
> place that does not know what is going on and has great difficulty
> dealing with the consequeces.  

It should be obvious that "I am away" messages should not be sent more than
once to the same recipient. However, Jacob's suggestion does have a practical
interest. Suppose the person which is luckily cruising the Carribeans for 2
monthes is a member of several distribution lists: all members of all these
lists, often the same persons, will receive the "I am away" notification..
By sending (once) the "away message" or other auto answers as specially
typed messages (e.g. user level acknowledgments), one gives the opportunity
to the lists to adopt a special treatment, e.g. dropping them rather than
broadcasting.

Christian Huitema