[Mailman-Developers] Re: [Mailman-Announce] RELEASED Mailman 2.1 beta5

[Chuq Von Rospach]

On Tuesday, November 19, 2002, at 08:44  PM, Phil Barnett wrote:
> ...and so we should dumb down all their software so it doesn't offend 
> them...
>

No, the proper question is whether it's appropriate for the list server 
software to take the lead in pushing this technology out to the users.

In the case of List-ID and List-*, it's clear that the list server has 
to go first, because otherwise the mail client authors have no 
motivation to implement support for the headers. Asking the mail 
clients to add support first here is wrong.

But encryption? Since no mainstream client supports encryption, and 
building in encryption is hard to use (even for geeks) and non-trivial, 
tell me why it's the list server's responsibility to blaze this trail?

IMHO, it's not. Themail clients need to get their encryption act 
together. Until they do, builting encryption into the server tools is 
stupid, because it won't be compatible with stuff when they DO build it 
into clients (and until they do, it'll be there, but only the five 
geeks out there will use it).

so putting it into the server when there's no acknowledged standard and 
no client support -- why?

Explain why it's the server's responsibility to go first here?


-- 
Chuq Von Rospach, Architech
chuqui@plaidworks.com -- http://www.plaidworks.com/chuqui/blog/