X-Spam-Status (was Re: New Option - '-u' for update)

[Ben Rosengart]

On Fri, Oct 04, 2002 at 01:39:59PM -0400, David Relson wrote:
> 
> 	:0fw
> 	| bogofilter -p -u
> 
> 	:0:
> 	^X-Spam-Status: Yes
> 	$HOME/spam

It seems to me that the question of the wisdom of using
"X-Spam-Status" has not been adequately explored on this list.

The SpamAssassin team should have picked a less generic name for
their header.  Let's not repeat their mistake.  A well-behaved
program working in a shared namespace (in this case, email headers)
should claim a previously-unused piece of the namespace for itself
and stay within that piece.  So bogofilter should use "X-Bogo" or
something similar, and any headers it adds should start with that.

The world already has expectations of the meaning of "X-Spam-Status".
Confounding those expectations is irresponsible.  I wouldn't argue
against it, except that I can't think of any case for it except inertia.

-- 
Ben Rosengart     (212) 741-4400 x215

Microsoft has argued that open source is bad for business, but you
have to ask, "Whose business?  Theirs, or yours?"    --Tim O'Reilly

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