Re: Using Netscape to mail to a group

[Jeff Clowser <jclowser@aerotek.com>]

Peter Gordon wrote:

> On Thu 1-Jul, Jeff Clowser wrote:
> > In every case I've seen, the expansion of test1 is done by a mail server,
> I understand your reasoning for putting the onus of expansion on the
> server but users often like to see the expansion locally just to
> ensure that they know who they are sending to.

I agree, and certainly this is reasonable in many cases.
My point is just that it seems to be implemented in practice
on the server more often because it is probably easier
or more consistent (i.e anything to the list goes to
the list, not some subset of it), and allows you to
protect the privacy of the list members easier.  In a
lot of cases - particularly public lists (such as this
list) the maintainers don't want the list to be seen by
the client, to keep the spammers from culling the names.
If your LDAP server is publicly seen, you would probably
want to configure lists so only something like a mail
server can see the members, but clients can't so it is
protected from those spammers, which would break the
clients ability to see the members.  If the list members
are hidden from the client, it also gives a level of
anonymity to the members who read but don't post.

> If you select a groupOfNames from an address book using Netscape,
> Netscape opens another window and expands the next level down. So it
> would seem that the underlying infra-structure is in place, it is just
> not used when sending mail.

Sure, it could be done if Netscape chose to.  Like anything
else, a decision has to be made, and they chose to put it
in the server and not the client.  I'm not really trying
to justify if their choice is good or bad, just trying to
reason out why they may have made the decision they made.
Definately looks like they kinda went halfway by displaying
the list in the browser, but not allowing you to pull it up
in the mail client. Course, you have the ability to review
the list, send to it if you like, or copy and paste the members
from the  browser window you want to send to, so the functionality
is there, albeit kinda awkward to use. :)


--
 Jeff Clowser
 mailto:jclowser@aerotek.com       Hanover MD  21076 USA
 Phone: (410)-579-4328             7312 Parkway Drive