--On 9. september 2003 13:41 +0200 jfcm <info@utel.net> wrote:
We have a major spam problem and a solution I wish to discuss here as it fits the mission of no IETF group as I understand it (this for Harald).
Jefsey,
your suggested message format seems very similar to the "message/external-body" feature that has been part of MIME from the beginning.
as far as I can tell this suggestion is also already partially implemented by spammers, in the form of "the main spam is in a picture embedded in the HTML that is sent as email". I haven't seen any great benefits accruing from that in the form of making it more expensive to spam.
the restriction part turns weemail into a "gated community", where you have to have gatekeepers/converters between the weemail and the rest of the world, to convert mail into and out of "weemail" form. This violates the end-to-end principle of email (which is near the root of many of our problems with spam, but is also the main reason why the Internet mail system won out over X.400, PROFS and oh-so-many other mail systems).
when the gated community is larger than the rest of the world, this starts getting really interesting. But I don't see that there is a way to get there from here.....
Harald