Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!henry.jpl.nasa.gov!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ucla-cs!uci-ics!zardoz!tgate!ka3ovk!drilex!axiom!linus!nixbur!nixpbe!bnews From: bnews@nixpbe.UUCP (Martin Boening) Newsgroups: news.admin Subject: Re: Tired of bogus subject lines? Message-ID: <518@nixpbe.UUCP> Date: 13 Sep 89 05:32:43 GMT References: <7921@medusa.cs.purdue.edu> <1650@unocss.UUCP> <11509@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <6833@stiatl.UUCP> Organization: Nixdorf Computer AG, Paderborn, Germany Lines: 41 pda@stiatl.UUCP (Paul D. Anderson) writes: >rsk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Rich Kulawiec) writes: >Actually, I'd like to see the RFC. I suspect that it deals with what may be >in the header region, but not with the contents of the Subject: field. I won't go off and post the whole RFC - but here is what it says about Subject lines ---begin quote---- ..... 2.1.4. Subject The "Subject" line (formerly "Title") tells what the message is about. It should be suggestive enough of the contents of the message to enable a reader to make a decision whether to read the message based on the subject line alone. If the message is submitted in response to another message (e.g., is a follow-up) the default subject should begin with the four characters "Re: " and the "References" line is required. For follow-ups, the use of the "Summary" line is encouraged. 2.1.5. Message-ID ..... ---end quote---- Interpretation by me: if a newsreader sets up a Subject line, it should always use "Re: " for followups. However, this is the default subject and users are free to insert anything they want here, even if this causes newsreaders following threads of discussion via Subject to loose out. Since the References line is mandatory for follow-ups, use that to follow threads of discussion. Just my opinion, of course. So have fun flaming around. Martin -- Martin Boening, c/o Nixdorf Computer AG, DS-CC2, Paderborn, West-Germany Email: | Phone: (+49) 5251 146155 USA: uunet!linus!nixbur!mboening.pad | Fax : (+49) 5251 146108 !USA: mcvax!unido!nixpbe!mboening.pad |