>RFC = Request For Comment. It's a suggestion submitted to be considered for
>new industry standards to be established.
Actually, that's not quite correct. The name is very misleading, as you
noticed. The RFCs *are* the "laws of the Internet". Different RFCs have
different "weights" (IE some are just informational, others are
standards). There are no real-world laws that require you to follow the
RFCs, and you won't get kicked off the Internet for violating them. But,
if you violate them, you are acting in a non-standard way and need to
accept the consequences.
For example, I could write a mail client that sends out the text "BLAH"
instead of "HELO" or "EHLO" during an SMTP transaction. But, it won't work
with any other mail server.
>The problems everyone is pointing out is a good example why this "Refuse
>NULL <> Senders" is
>an RFC and not an industry standard.
It *is* an industry standard. The RFC made the rule, and it was up to the
vendors to follow it. They did.
>It is up to the writers of the email programs at large to
>come up with the solutions to conform to the industry standards and find
>solutions to the problems that occur when "NULL <>Senders" are allowed.
IMail put in the option because there were some customers that requested it.
It *is* acceptable for people to use this option, even though it violates
the RFC. However, there are consequences.
In this case, you will not get bounce messages, you will not get some
quasi-legitimate mail, you will not get delivery status notifications, you
will likely annoy other postmasters, and you will get blacklisted from some
servers.
As some people have pointed out on this thread, they are fine accepting the
consequences, given the benefits they receive. But, the fact is it is a
violation of the RFCs, and it is considered "rude" to violate the standard
ones (such as RFC821/822, which are industry standards as well as Internet
standards).
-Scott
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