INTERNET-DRAFT                               Charles H. Lindsey
Usenet Format Working Group                  University of Manchester
                                             July 2001

5.1. Date

5.1.  Date
   The Date header contains the date and time that the article was
   prepared by the poster ready for transmission and SHOULD express the
   poster's local time. The content syntax makes use of syntax defined
   in [RFC 2822], subject to the following revised definition of zone.

      Date-content        = date-time
      zone                = (( "+" / "-" ) 4DIGIT) / "UT" / "GMT"

   The forms "UT" and "GMT" (indicating universal time) are to be
   regarded as obsolete synonyms for "+0000". They MUST be be accepted,
   and passed on unchanged, by all agents, but they MUST NOT be
   generated as part of new articles by posting and injecting agents.
   Although folding white space is permitted throughout the date-time
   syntax, it is RECOMMENDED that a single space be used in each place
   that FWS appears (whether it is required or optional).

        NOTE: A convention that is sometimes followed is to add a
        comment, after the date-time, containing the time zone in
        human-readable form, but many of the abbreviations commonly used
        for this purpose are ambiguous. The value given by the  is
        the only definitive form.

   In order to prevent the reinjection of expired articles into the news
   stream, relaying and serving agents MUST refuse articles whose Date
   header predates the earliest articles of which they normally keep
   record, or which is more than 24 hours into the future (though they
   MAY use a margin less than that 24 hours). Relaying agents MUST NOT
   modify the Date header in transit.

Diffs to previous draft

--- {draft-04}	Wed Jul 11 21:55:18 2001
+++ {draft-05}	Wed Jul 11 21:55:18 2001
@@ -2,15 +2,24 @@
    The Date header contains the date and time that the article was
    prepared by the poster ready for transmission and SHOULD express the
    poster's local time. The content syntax makes use of syntax defined
-   in [MESSFOR].
+   in [RFC 2822], subject to the following revised definition of zone.
 
       Date-content        = date-time
+      zone                = (( "+" / "-" ) 4DIGIT) / "UT" / "GMT"
 
-        NOTE: It is a useful convention to follow the date-time with a
-        comment containing the time zone in human-readable form. The use
-        of folding in a date-time is deprecated, even though permitted
-        by [MESSFOR].
-[There is a specific RECOMMENDED about this in MESSFOR now.]
+   The forms "UT" and "GMT" (indicating universal time) are to be
+   regarded as obsolete synonyms for "+0000". They MUST be be accepted,
+   and passed on unchanged, by all agents, but they MUST NOT be
+   generated as part of new articles by posting and injecting agents.
+   Although folding white space is permitted throughout the date-time
+   syntax, it is RECOMMENDED that a single space be used in each place
+   that FWS appears (whether it is required or optional).
+
+        NOTE: A convention that is sometimes followed is to add a
+        comment, after the date-time, containing the time zone in
+        human-readable form, but many of the abbreviations commonly used
+        for this purpose are ambiguous. The value given by the <zone> is
+        the only definitive form.
 
    In order to prevent the reinjection of expired articles into the news
    stream, relaying and serving agents MUST refuse articles whose Date