Re: [Asrg] 6. Proposals - Legal - Subject labelling (?)

["Jon Kyme" <jrk@merseymail.com>]

> > it's worth noting some of the likely constraints:
> > The label should be short
> > The label should be near (at) the start of the subject
> > The label shouldn't be utterly opaque to the non-technical reader.
> > The established use of the Subject should be preserved.
> 
> 
> Sorry I'm really late on this... but I've always thought that the whole 
> "ADV" in the subject line thing was a really bad idea. It invites 
> sloppy implementation, leading to all kinds of legitimate subject lines 
> suddenly and mysteriously getting bounced.  e.g. "[sec-adv] Security 
> advisory"(*), "Interactive fiction sources ColossalCave.adv", ...
> 
> I think any kind of "ADV" flag belongs in a header defined for the 
> purpose, so it won't collide with existing use of the subject line no 
> matter how inevitably poorly client developers implement filtering. If 
> the law allows that the flag be in a new header, I'd favor running with 
> that approach.
> 

Gosh, you must have been thinking about this really long and hard :-)
The problem is that some *legislators* are moving towards requiring that
Email marketing messages be clearly labelled as such. "Clearly" is either
going to require a rewrite of all MUAs so that our new header is displayed
by default, or it's going to be a requirement that the label is in one of
the currently commonly displayed headers. *Subject* is an obvious place for
such a label since this field is already widely used to give a brief
summary of the content of the message.

Given that subject labelling may be a (for some) a *legal* requirement. It
might not be a bad idea to standardise a mechanism for doing it, EVEN
THOUGH we don't like it. So as to reduce the risks of "sloppy
implementation" and accidental collisions that you correctly identify.

On a related point: I'm in favour of safety standards for bungee-jump
operators, since even tho' I intend never to be a customer, I may walk
under one.


 




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