-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 'Lo Chiropter Operators,
In a recent discussion with a friend I was _told_ ;) that 'Re:' used in the subject line of an email was an abbreviation for 'Reply' and _not_ 'Regarding', and that Re: _shouldn't ever_ be used in the sense of 'Regarding' when used in email message Subject fields. The reason I was given was that using 'Regarding', whether in abbreviated form or not, in the 'Subject:' field, was tautological. Although I can see the logic there I didn't think that was a good enough reason in itself. Anyhow, after thinking about it, I can understand that using Re: in a *new message* to mean 'Regarding' may be confounding to the recipient of it as it may be mistaken to mean a 'Reply', but I am still uncertain whether there is an actual proper or accepted usage of 'Re:' in email messages. I looked up RFC2822 and from what I can gather the use of Re: is first of all optional as it states that: RFC2822>...the field body MAY start with the string "Re: "... It then goes on to define "Re:" : RFC2822>...string "Re: " (from the Latin "res", in the matter of)..." Well the RFC would then seem to be suggesting the use of "Re:" in the sense of 'Regarding'. However, The Bat! (and some other clients) seem to be using 'Re:' to mean 'Reply' and not "in the matter of", as my friend is suggesting is proper. In fact, in TB!'s help file the SINGLERE macro is used to "disable reply counting". So then, Re[3] in the subject line would mean Reply 3 and not Regarding 3, or "in the matter of" 3. So, does anyone know whether there is some email etiquette to settle this. Does Re: mean 'Regarding' or 'Reply' when used in the Subject field? And is one acceptable and the other unacceptable? - -- Sl�n, Simon @ theycallmesimon.co.uk ****************************************** PGP Key: http://pgp.theycallmesimon.co.uk/ Faffing about with TB! v1.61 on W2K SP3 #2754. Raw Rid Less My Quo � -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Comment: Privacy is freedom. Protect your privacy with PGP! Comment: KeyID: 0x5C7E8966 Comment: Fingerprint: 851C F927 0296 FF1C 70A2 474F CB6E 6FFE 5C7E 8966 iQA/AwUBPd2O8Mtub/5cfolmEQL+NgCgqVGuMSPlKlC/6j1O/xG1pP7W2IEAoMX5 i3HO69wvNkXQNwGbPau92hCX =qoyq -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ________________________________________________ Current version is 1.61 | "Using TBUDL" information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html
