[Mailman-Developers] Dates

[Jay R. Ashworth]

On Tue, May 01, 2001 at 02:59:06PM -0700, Dan Mick wrote:
> > > Right.  But if it's archived as "today" when it was sent "yesterday",
> > > that's not the bahavior I would ever want, even if the Date: header is
> > > correct in the archive.
> > 
> > Ok, but the situation we're discussing here is when it was sent
> > yesterday, and received yesterday, but *dated* some time in 1982.
> > 
> > Since the message will not contain *any* authoritative sent dates at
> > that point, 
> 
> I disagree. The authoritative date is the Date header which says 1982.
> That's what the sending mail program said, and I believe it. Just
> because its human is an ass doesn't change that. The human needs to be
> notified, sure.

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree, then.

If that date is *wrong*, it's *wrong*.  That it was applied by the
sending MUA does *not* make it automatically authoritative; timestamps
are an absolute -- there *is* a standard.

> > what protocol would you *suggest*, for having it archived
> > as being sent yesterday, the way you'd like?
> 
> That's my point: it's *not* the way I'd like.  I'm not suggesting
> any protocol.  The problem doesn't need any solution, for me.

Fine.  Then turn those switches off.  You're in a minority, many other
people hate having *incorrect* (and they are incorrect -- those messages
were *not* sent in 1982) archives.

> I'd suggest that the only two meaningful dates are:
> 
> 1) Date: header
> 2) date/time of arrival at the archiver
> 
> All else is sophistry.

Hmmm... isn't that what we said?

And no, "time sent by the sender" is a meaningful date as well... *even
if* it's not correctly represented by the header.

> > > Right.  I'm talking about the archiver too.
> > > I just wanted to point out that opinions differ.
> > 
> > Certainly... but I don't necessarily see that you've posited a
> > *solution*, just an opinion.
> 
> Who said anything about a solution?  I started this thread, I think, by
> stating an opinion about the behavior I'd like.

Funny... I thought Barry'd started it.  I'll have to go back and look.

But regardless, I concur with Barry and the other people who called it
a problem, and I think a solution is in order.  Barry's solution has an
on-off switch.  If you think that this is not a problem *to the people
for whom you maintain an archive*, then shut that switch off.

Cheers,
-- jra
-- 
Jay R. Ashworth                                                jra@baylink.com
Member of the Technical Staff     Baylink
The Suncoast Freenet         The Things I Think
Tampa Bay, Florida        http://baylink.pitas.com             +1 727 804 5015