s-o-1036 June 1994

6.8. Keywords

The  Keywords header content is one or more phrases intended
to describe some aspect of the content of the article:

     Keywords-content = plain-phrase *( "," [ space ] plain-phrase )

Keywords, separated  by  commas,  each  follow  the  <plain-
phrase>  syntax  defined  in  section 5.2.  Encoded words in
keywords MUST not contain characters other than letters  (of
either case), digits, and the characters "!", "*", "+", "-",
"/", "=", and "_".

     NOTE: Posters and posting agents are asked to take
     note that keywords are separated by commas, not by
     white space.  The following Keywords  header  con-
     tains  only  one  keyword  (a  rather unlikely and
     improbable one):

          Keywords: Thompson Ritchie Multics Linux

     and should probably have been written:

          Keywords: Thompson, Ritchie, Multics, Linux

     This  particular  error  is  unfortunately  rather
     widespread.

INTERNET DRAFT to be        NEWS                    sec. 6.8


     NOTE:   Reading  agents  and  archivers  preparing
     indexes of articles should bear in mind that user-
     chosen  keywords are notoriously poor for indexing
     purposes unless the keywords  are  picked  from  a
     predefined  set (which they are not in this case).
     Also, some followup agents unwisely propagate  the
     Keywords  header  from the precursor into the fol-
     lowup by default.  At least one news-based experi-
     ment has found the contents of Keywords headers to
     be completely valueless for indexing.

--- ../rfc1036/Keywords.out          December 1987
+++ ../s-o-1036/Keywords.out          June 1994
@@ -1,6 +1,42 @@
-2.2.9.  Keywords
+6.8. Keywords
 
-    A few well-selected keywords identifying the message should be on
-    this line.  This is used as an aid in determining if this message is
-    interesting to the reader.
+The  Keywords header content is one or more phrases intended
+to describe some aspect of the content of the article:
+
+     Keywords-content = plain-phrase *( "," [ space ] plain-phrase )
+
+Keywords, separated  by  commas,  each  follow  the  <plain-
+phrase>  syntax  defined  in  section 5.2.  Encoded words in
+keywords MUST not contain characters other than letters  (of
+either case), digits, and the characters "!", "*", "+", "-",
+"/", "=", and "_".
+
+     NOTE: Posters and posting agents are asked to take
+     note that keywords are separated by commas, not by
+     white space.  The following Keywords  header  con-
+     tains  only  one  keyword  (a  rather unlikely and
+     improbable one):
+
+          Keywords: Thompson Ritchie Multics Linux
+
+     and should probably have been written:
+
+          Keywords: Thompson, Ritchie, Multics, Linux
+
+     This  particular  error  is  unfortunately  rather
+     widespread.
+
+INTERNET DRAFT to be        NEWS                    sec. 6.8
+
+
+     NOTE:   Reading  agents  and  archivers  preparing
+     indexes of articles should bear in mind that user-
+     chosen  keywords are notoriously poor for indexing
+     purposes unless the keywords  are  picked  from  a
+     predefined  set (which they are not in this case).
+     Also, some followup agents unwisely propagate  the
+     Keywords  header  from the precursor into the fol-
+     lowup by default.  At least one news-based experi-
+     ment has found the contents of Keywords headers to
+     be completely valueless for indexing.