Re: Timothy C. May: Mini-mailbombs and Warning Letters

[Travis Corcoran <tjic@OpenMarket.com>]

>  Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 21:38:33 -0700
>  From: patrick@Verity.COM (Patrick Horgan)
>  
>  > 
>  > 	but the key was not there.  Please mail me your key.  Thank you.
>  > 
>  > constructive suggestion as to how this mail could be changed
>  > to convey more information or to be less "threatening", please mail me.
> 
>  Sure, I found the above offensive.  It comes across in exactly the same
>  tone as a cop saying, "Please step away from the car."

Ack!  ;)  Not my intention at all, but a good observation...

>  The simple change:
>  
>        but the key was not there.  Could you please mail me your key?  Thanks.
>  
>  works miracles:)  The tone on the rest of it was nice.  You have to be careful
>  with imperatives.  They usually sound mean...even with a please at the front.

I got this letter in favor of some change in the wording, and a few
letters saying "wording is fine as is".

I assume that those who currently have no beef with the wording will
not be offended by the added words, thus I have happilly integrated
Patrick's suggestion.

I have also added to the code a list of people who don't like
receiving key-queries, added a test that gives an error if the user
attempts to send a key-query to such an address, and made TCM's
address the default value for the list.

I have also added code to maintain a disk-based list of addresses that
have already been mailed for a key, and added code that checks against
this list before sending mail.

I'll put this latest version of mail-secure.el (also upgraded to work
with the latest version of mailcrypt (3.3)) on my web page with in a
day or so.  Until then, anyone who wants a copy can mail me.

To those who sent polite suggestions: thank you.  Your constructive
criticism has helped make mail-secure.el a better tool.  

I encourage anyone else who has suggestions or comments to mail me.  I
try to be responsive to constructive input, as doing so helps the
package improve, be accepted and get used.

TJIC