On Thu, 22 Jan 1998, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> One can only draw parallels between real mail and e-mail so far, and I
> don't think receipt or read notification has any place in e-mail.
Yeah, but I certainly don't want to limit my abilities based on what the
paper world's limitations.
> It can be abused too easily, there's no additional cost, it's currently
> worse at setting expectations than nothing at all, and it lends an
> impression about e-mail that is completely impossible to live up to.
I used to work with an old, clunky Unix office suite called Uniplex. For
the most part I disliked it, but it has some interesting features. One of
these fatures was the delivery confirmation flag one could set in
Uniplex's MUA module. As long as both recipient and sender were using this
MUA, the facility worked well. Even so, the bandwidth and mailbox clutter
were not usually worth the value of this 'feature', so most mail didn't
use it. Occasionally, when there was an important piece that the boss
wanted to make sure everyone read went out, this was considered a benefit.
Also, knowing *when* someone read a message was also considered a plus.
I didn't care for the feature much, but the client (boss) adored it.
It takes all kinds to make a world. Confirmations may never become a
standard header request, but I don't see the huge harm in allowing for
them. Just because I'd never use such a feature, doesn't mean I think it's
a Bad Thing for other to have. And certainly I know others who would love
to have it, even (especially) within a relatively closed group.
- Evan
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