EMAIL != FTP

Fri May 25 21:57:24 UTC 2001

Alexei Roudnev wrote:
> 
> Few things are obvious:
> 
> (1) sender must be able to use simple _attach file_ feature to send
>     a file, without extra skills;
> (2) receiver should be able to receive this file and open it as
>     part of letter; without extra skills.
> 
> If you want to create additional service, you can (by request)
> retract attachments on the server, place them  on the web (you can
> virus - scan them if you want and add virus warning)  and include
> html reference into the mail itself;

It may be worth noting that AOL's mail service (which is only accessible
via the proprietary AOL client or web pages) does just this. 
Attachments are kept on the server until the user explicitly chooses to
download them.

> but it cause a lot of problems if customer uses something other that
> openlook - express. For some cases it looks reasonable; for opthers,
> IMAP can solve the problem. And (of course) you need _smart_
> anty-spam filters which can be turn on / off by the customer (and
> can have ON default).

Yes.  Any system where messages are not kept on the server will have a
problem with this.  For instance, how will the server know when to
delete the web-linked attachments?  If the message is left on the
server, this is a no-brainer - remove it when the message is deleted. 
But if it's on a system where people normally remove messages from the
server prior to reading (like POP), then there is no good way to know
when it is safe to delete the attachments from the web server.

> My friends filter out SPAM by finding the same messages send to the
> hundred of the custoimers at onse - this simple method drop the
> SPAM percent dramatically (just again, it's important to allow
> receiving spam - it can be something except SPAM, so they provide
> some way to look through removed messages, as I know). Anyway,
> SPAm p[roblem and PARSEL problem are different ones.

The only problem with this is that if hundreds of customers are all
subscribed to a single legitimate opt-in mailing list, this kind of
filter will incorrectly tag it as spam.  Depending on the size and
makeup of your user base, this may or may not be a likely scenario.

-- David