jvz (09/26/82)
I would like to propose a network facility to enable the sending
of mail to a computer without the need to know a specific account
on that computer. This could be similar to the "general
delivery" system available in the US mail.
This would solve two problems which occur when trying to communi-
cate with people on the net. The first is when you know who you
wish to send a letter to, and even the computer facility, but do
not know the individual's computer account. The second occurs
when you do not even know who it is you wish to contact, but have
the net address of the computer (for example, you wish to find
out about project XYZ at xyz-vax). Currently, the only method
I'm aware of to accomplish the above aims is to broadcast a mes-
sage to the entire net.
There are at least two ways this could work. The first is to
have all mail to this "general delivery" account be distributed
by the system administrator to the appropriate parties (there
might be some objections to this by the s.a's). Another approach
would be to have mail to this account be redirected to a local
newsgroup ("localnet.general" or something) which would then pro-
vide a reasonable guarantee of the individual or parties con-
cerned receiving the note.
-John Van Zandt
UCSD
uucp: ucbvax!sdcsvax!jvz
arpa: sdcsvax!jvz@nprdc