[Mailman-Users] Who authored the message?

[Lindsay Haisley]

On Mon, 2014-05-12 at 20:45 -0700, Dave Nathanson wrote:
> Since DEMARC we don't know who is authoring list messages anymore. 

The use of DMARC p=reject by ESPs _implies_ either some loss of
information, or the necessity to encapsulate a list post losslessly as a
MIME spec'd attachment.  The former solution unavoidably violates RFCs,
while the latter is RFC compliant.  But because the world is full of
MUAs which don't handle the required Content-Type uniformly, and
non-tech email users who are confused/put off by this, it may be judged
to be a Bad Idea from a practical point of view.

As Mark pointed out, the best possible selection of current alternatives
is available in MM 2.1.18-1, where both options are available.

My guess is that going forward, authenticated email of one sort or
another will become more common, and that MIME encapsulation of
contents, like double-boxing fragile items when shipping them, will be
come a standard practice, requiring better standardization in MUAs as to
how this is presented.

Email protocols were developed in an era of a kinder, gentler Internet
where every SMTP server was an open relay and spamming and phishing were
very much the exception rather than the rule.  It's an incredible
testament to the folks who designed these protocols that the Internet
email system, arguably the most stressed of all Internet services, still
works at all, but it's fairly obvious that something is going to have to
change.

-- 
Lindsay Haisley       | "Everything works if you let it"
FMP Computer Services |
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