Re: forwarding as text rather than MIME?

[Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@gnus.org>]

Hrvoje Niksic <hniksic@srce.hr> writes:

> > Forwarding messages the new, MIME way is OK when we talk about mail
> > messages.  But, what's with post forwards? [...]
> 
> Indeed, you are right.  I didn't think about that.

I didn't either.  Hm.

> Lars, could you please *please* allow a way to revert to the old
> forarding style?  Don't make me have to hurt you when we meet in
> Japan.  :-)

:-)

Ok, there are many things to consider here.  I'll try to enumerate
them, because I like enumerated lists, and the auto-indent thing is
neat.

1) Forwarding things as message/rfc822 allows automatic extraction by
   MIME-compliant news/mail readers.

2) A typical complaint when forwarding using the old scheme was that
   not all headers were included, which meant that when people
   forwarded things to complain about spam, none of the important
   headers (Path/Received/etc) were included.

3) A typical complaint when forwarding message/rfc822 messages is that 
   all the headers are included, which means that when people forward
   mail to each other, they get a bunch of useless headers
   (Path/Received/etc) they have to scroll through (if their
   news/maill reader don't handle that).

4) Some news hierarchies frown/autocancel some MIME types, but I
   haven't heard anyone autocancelling multiparts that only contain
   text/plain and message/rfc822.

5) MIME multiparts are generally somewhat noisier than traditional
   forward.  But if we drop the "multipart warning" ("If you are
   reading this..."), then the quantity of noise is actually less.
   Fix in Pterodactyl Gnus v0.78.

6) message/rfc822 is generally more robust than traditional forwards.
   If the recipient has real MIME, then you can be pretty sure that
   the recipient will be able to view the forwarded news/mail as
   was originally intended.  I don't think many mail/news readers
   are able to/will be able to do the same with traditional
   forwards.

To sum these considerations up, I think that message/rfc822 is the
right thing to do, and perhaps more importantly, it's The Thing Of The 
Future.  And I think that perhaps by pushing this, we might make the
future happen a bit sooner.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
  larsi@gnus.org * Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen