Talk:Email agent (infrastructure)

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Email agent (infrastructure) article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Computing: Networking / Software Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Computing, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of computers, computing, and information technology on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.ComputingWikipedia:WikiProject ComputingTemplate:WikiProject ComputingComputing articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by Networking task force.
	This article is supported by WikiProject Software.

Internet Low‑importance

	Internet portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Internet, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the Internet on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.InternetWikipedia:WikiProject InternetTemplate:WikiProject InternetInternet articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Fork of existing articles under not notable term

The term used as title of this article is by far and foremost a synonym for e-mail client. None of the defining documents of Internet email systems or structure use this term for what the article claims and there are no supporting references as to such usage. The article appears to be a fork or alternate to existing articles that discuss the subject matter. Kbrose (talk) 16:30, 28 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Kbrose,

Good point about the terminology being non-standard; I’ve moved the article to a more specialized title and put a disambiguation page stating that it most commonly means MUA.

I’d classify the article as an overview, summarizing the connections between the various components of e-mail infrastructure, and choose the most reasonable name that came to mind. Any other suggestions (as per WP:NAME)?

I considered and rejected MxA as too cryptic, though it is used in the sources, and “agent” is both used in MxA and is more common than “actor”.

As I understand it, your concern is largely about terminology and forking/summary, rather than OR per se – several sources (as cited) discuss these roles as a group, and as per (the non-binding) WP:NOTOR (specifically the third point in Compiling facts and information), the sources do in fact use inconsistent and ad hoc terminology (essentially, “MUAs, MTAs, MDAs, and all that jazz”), so while standardizing terminology is admittedly an arbitrary choice on our part, the category itself seems useful – and thanks for your edits!

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 04:51, 8 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I have since creation of this article contemplated deletion of same, since this creates unnecessary confusion and misrepresentation. The content is more or less duplication and should be presented elsewhere in better form. Kbrose (talk) 16:05, 8 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

If your concern is the name, we can change it or flag as {{neologism}} pending change.

To me (and to the references) it is a useful summary of the connections between the roles of MTA, MSA, MDA, MRA, and MUA – where else are these roles connected?

—Nils von Barth (nbarth) (talk) 09:01, 14 January 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I must say that this is by far one of the very best articles I have come across on the subject. Particularly appreciated was the concise and simply use of MxA to sum it all up properly and keep terms in perspective. The explanations and helpful diagrams were exactly what the reader needs to see. My experience indicates that it appears to be accurate in comparison to industry usage, as well as application.

Well done, and thank you. - KitchM (talk) 22:21, 11 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Email agent (infrastructure). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://archive.is/20130415113750/http://wiki.mutt.org/?MailConcept/Flow to http://wiki.mutt.org/?MailConcept%2FFlow

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Y An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 03:07, 20 September 2017 (UTC)[reply]

MDA Process Clarification

The article states: "The delivery (MDA) stage is where such tasks as filtering (of undesired emails) and filing (into separate folders) occur, and are the start of the user agent; traditionally this was done via procmail, while today it may be done via server-side programs, often using spam filters such as SpamAssassin. The MDA can be said to work "before the message hits the user's mailbox". This section is misleading and confusing. An MDA works at the server side, not the user agent (MUA) side. Also, the MDA may not work with filters at all. The filters may be handled by the MTA as a subroutine process. IMHO this needs clarification. --KitchM (talk) 16:15, 4 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]

If you have an idea on how to fix it, you could always fix it yourself. That's usually the only way things get done around here. — AfroThundr ^{(u · t · c)} 02:06, 5 October 2018 (UTC)[reply]