Talk:Email agent (infrastructure)

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)


 * 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)


 * 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)


 * If your concern is the name, we can change it or flag as 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)

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)

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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)
 * 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)