Re: [usefor] [apps-discuss] Changes to netnews header registrations

[Graham Klyne <[e-mail]>]

(Trimming cc's)

On 16/05/2016 16:57, Julien ÉLIE wrote:
> Hi Graham,
>
>> TL;DR: I don't propose to recommend the additional changes you suggest
>> as I'm not seeing that they really contribute to the purpose of the
>> registry (cf. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3864#section-2.2.2).
>
> OK, Content-* header fields used by netnews are not supposed to be registered.
> Yet, is it the same for MIME-Version, that is not mentioned in neither Section 1
> nor Section 2.2.2 of RFC3864?

I believe so:  "MIME-Version" is registered as a "MIME" header field in the 
registry.

>
>
>
>> 2. With reference to the X-headers you mention, I see little point in
>> adding new, non-standard headers to the registry simply to indicate they
>> are now obsolete.  (There could be a case for doing this if they are in
>> widespread use, but I think that should be a separate discussion, and a
>> new RFC with its own IANA considerations section. I suspect it's not
>> worth the effort!)
>
> It depends on when we can say a header field is "wide-spread".
> I've just had a look in two newsgroups:
>
> * last 1043 messages (roughly October 2014-May 2016) in news.software.nntp:
> 391 (37%) contain X-Trace
> 216 (21%) contain X-Complaints-To
>
> * last 1437 messages (roughly August 2014-May 2016) in soc.culture.french:
> 612 (43%) contain X-Trace
> 97 (7%) contain X-Complaints-To
>
> Of course wider stats should be done because the generation of these headers
> depend on the news servers the users connect to.
>
>
> X-Trace seems in wide-spread use, though.
> I agree that writing a new RFC to just obsolete it is probably not worth the
> effort.  However, maybe X-Trace (and maybe other headers) could be added in IANA
> considerations section of an update of RFC 5536 if we ever move it to Draft
> Standard?
>

Sure.  That would be subject to normal IETF review.  If it passed that, then (as 
registry reviewer) I would have no problem recommending its acceptance.

#g
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