[PLUG-TALK] MUAs and "Mail Opened" Indicator

[Rich Shepard]

On Fri, 1 Feb 2008, Galen Seitz wrote:

> I think there's some confusion here.  I think Paul thought you were asking
> whether when a single recipient, using two different MUAs to read email,
> does one MUA know when the other has opened a given email.

Galen,

   That's not what I was asking.

> Richard, I assume you were asking whether any common Linux MUA supports
> notifying the sender that an email has been opened.

   Yes.

> In Thunderbird these are called 'Return Receipts', and I believe that they
> are disabled by default.

   I thought this might be the case. But, text-based MUAs don't do this.

> I suspect most Linux users consider return receipts a waste of
> bandwidth, if not an invasion of privacy.  I would expect most Linux
> MUAs to either not support them, or have them default to disabled.

   I, too, consider them an invasion of privacy. Either I get a response to a
message I send, or I don't. Knowing the recipient read the message but chose
to not respond is less valuable than not getting any response. Also, I don't
particularly want anyone using a Microsoft MUA to know whether I read the
received message, but elected to ignore it.

   Thanks for the clarification.

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |  Integrity            Credibility
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.        |            Innovation
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