[ietf-dkim] ABNF: Sender = Originator / Operator

[Dave Crocker]

Folks,

I keep prattling on about the ambiguity of the term 'sender'.  For example, take 
a look at the somewhat astonishing Table 1 in
<http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac123/ac147/archived_issues/ipj_8-4/anti-spam_efforts.html>

Every entry refers to a sender.

Although important in lots of email discussions, it is particularly problematic 
to be vague with the term 'sender' when the discussion is specifically about 
responsibility.

It has been pointed out that such ranting is more productive when there is 
replacement terminology being offered.

After some offline discussions, I would like to suggest two, simple words, that 
capture sufficient distinction to be useful.  We could devise a more extensive 
and nuanced list, but as I say, the goal is to be useful:

      Originator:  Responsible for the content of a
                   message.

      Operator:    Performs one or more message transfer
                   steps for the message.


Some will note the slight echo of X.400, for the first term.  One needs to take 
note that the core technical work in formulating the UA/MTA model, including the 
terminology, had lots of Arpanet folk in it...

Thoughts?


d/
-- 

Dave Crocker
Brandenburg InternetWorking
<http://bbiw.net>