Re: [Asrg] Adding a spam button to MUAs

[Dave CROCKER <[e-mail]>]

On 2/5/2010 4:13 PM, John Levine wrote:
>> Fine with me. But you really should learn about MX records - they are
>> very useful and have been standardized for many years now.
>
> Thanks, we're familiar with them.  Perhaps you might want to
> familiarize yourself with section 5.1 of RFC 5321 which makes it quite
> clear that MX records are still optional, and any host with an A or
> AAAA record might be a mail domain.
>
> This is what I meant about overloading names,
...


Overloading indeed.

One of the benefits of the suggestion to use the regular posting mechanism is 
that it means that the MUA already knows how to post a message.  It does not 
need the IP Address of a server to post two.

Hence, there are only two possible pieces of information the MUA needs:

      1.  Is the function supported by the operator?

      2.  What address should be used for sending problem messages to, if we 
want to let operators choose their own address; this isn't needed at all if 
there is a global standard.

#1 is one bit of information.  There is no need for an A or MX, nevermind no 
need to debate between them.

#2 is an email address, which neither A nor MX support.

The design right choice, here is a TXT record, under an underscore subdomain.

d/
-- 

   Dave Crocker
   Brandenburg InternetWorking
   bbiw.net