Re: How to send a return receipt
Quoting Charles Cazabon <mutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
The concept of mail receipts is poorly designed; there is no way to implement
a reliable receipt notification system with SMTP mail. *Many* of the better
mail packages therefore do not implement support for it -- why have a feature
if you *know* it can never work properly?
I think it's an overstatement to say that "it can never work
properly". It's actually "it _might not_ work properly". It still
serves its purpose when it does work - see below.
It's also seen as an invasion of privacy.
It certainly creates some annoyance on the recipient end. But I don't
see how it is an invasion of privacy as long as the MUA has my consent
before sending a receipt.
Mail receipts are essentially one of those features that commercial MUA
vendors include as a marketing checkbox feature, but which serve little or no
useful purpose in the real world.
Well, in the corporate* world where people communicate over Lotus
Notes or Outlook, they tend to use mail receipts a lot. And _because_
they all communicate over the same MUA that supports the feature, it
actually does work and become useful.
Now _I_ don't use these mail receipts, nor do _I_ like getting them,
because of the annoyance factor. But then I respect it when others
request one - at least before they start abusing it.
My 2 cents.
--
Jing Xue
*: that's real enough for me. YMMV.