Re: bugfix 1

[Brian Stafford <brian stafford uklinux net>]

On Mon,  9 July 08:53 Ali Akcaagac wrote:

> yeah this might be but i am kinda curious of this:
> 
> a) when i forward email a line gets appended on top
>    of the mail 'On xxxxxx Ali Akcaagac wrote'
> 
> but when i forward something, then i haven't written
> it. i just forward what i get from someone else.
> 
> b) my signature gets added, so the forwarded mail
>    will look like its written by me. but in reality
>    its written by someone else.
> 
> if so, as you say, then the forwarded mail shouldnt
> have a signature and shouldnt have the 'on xxxxx ... wrote'
> stuff.

Here's my 2p worth :-

There are two common ways of forwarding a message:

One is to quote the original message as if it was a reply with
a line of explanation at the top and the forwarder's signature
as normal for a reply.  Typically the person forwarding the
message might add a line or two of explanation as to why the
message is being forwarded.

It should be noted that the forwarded message is a *new*
message distinct from the original, i.e. it has a new Message-Id:
and the From:To:/Cc:/Bcc: headers are unrelated to those of the
original message.

A better way is to use MIME and make a multipart/mixed message.
The person forwarding the message add the explanation in a
text/plain (or text/html if that is your thing) part and the
entire original message is attached as a message/rfc822 part.
Many contemporary MUAs handle this situation well and it is
significantly more flexible than the "forward like a quoted reply"
method. As before this is a new message distinct from the original.

In addition to the above RFC 822 / RFC 2822 describes a method
of resending a message.  When resending, the message is the
*same* message as the original, all the original headers are
preserved and it has the *same* message id.  The headers that
would normally be set by the sending MUA are prefixed with
"Resent-" to provide information about the person who resent the
message and the new recipient list.  From the point of view
of the person receiving the resent message, it came from the
original sender and has the original recipient list, however
there is extra trace information in the Resent-Xxx: headers.

IMO, the "forward like a quoted reply" method should be abandoned
as obsolete.  An MUA should offer the user the opportunity to
forward a message as a message/rfc822 attachment along with a
message from the forwarder or it should offer the user the option
to resend the message as described in RFC 2822.  I feel that these
are two distinct and useful options.


Brian Stafford