GNU bug report logs - #41102
When messages have no Date:

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (The Gnus Bugfixing Girls + Boys)
Subject: When messages have no Date:
Date: Wed, 06 May 2020 07:23:43 +0800

Got an idea: if a mail arrives without a Date: header, gnus should add a
X-Gnus-Artificial-Date: <now> header.

And when opening such messages, if no Date: is found, use the
X-Gnus-Artificial-Date: header when making dates for the *Summary*
buffer.

That way instead of 1970 dates, you'll have dates certainly just a day
or two from the real date (when they sent the mail, that we don't know.)

-AND/OR-

Dig the earliest date out of all the Received headers.

My idea increases the accuracy of the date thousands of times over
"1970" (which of course could still be an option for folks who like it.)

Gnus v5.13
GNU Emacs 26.3 (build 2, x86_64-pc-linux-gnu, GTK+ Version 3.24.11)
 of 2019-09-23, modified by Debian

Message #8 received at 41102 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: 41102 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: just like totally-fudged-out-message-id
Date: Wed, 06 May 2020 19:36:56 +0800

Just like
nnmail.el:  (concat "<" (message-unique-id) "@totally-fudged-out-message-id>")
Make a X-Gnus-Totally-Fudged-Out-Date header.

Message #11 received at 41102 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: 41102 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Add a X-Gnus-Note
Date: Wed, 06 May 2020 19:43:42 +0800

Or make a standard
Date: <now>
but also add a
X-Gnus-Note: Date header added by Gnus

Message #14 received at 41102 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
To: 41102 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Mutt
Date: Wed, 06 May 2020 20:03:20 +0800

Let's have a look at what mutt does,

q:Quit  d:Del  u:Undel  s:Save  m:Mail  r:Reply  g:Group  ?:Help
        1   +  5月 06 國有財產署      (0.4K) 請回填信件驗證碼
        2 N F  5月 06 To jidanni <at> jida (0.1K) test

Well the first message is the one with no date.
As we can see mutt doesn't say 1970.

Message #17 received at 41102 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Lars Ingebrigtsen <larsi <at> gnus.org>
To: 積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org>
Cc: 41102 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#41102: When messages have no Date:
Date: Wed, 05 Aug 2020 13:16:27 +0200

積丹尼 Dan Jacobson <jidanni <at> jidanni.org> writes:

> Got an idea: if a mail arrives without a Date: header, gnus should add a
> X-Gnus-Artificial-Date: <now> header.
>
> And when opening such messages, if no Date: is found, use the
> X-Gnus-Artificial-Date: header when making dates for the *Summary*
> buffer.
>
> That way instead of 1970 dates, you'll have dates certainly just a day
> or two from the real date (when they sent the mail, that we don't know.)

I don't think we should pretend -- when we don't know what the sent date
is, then giving an errorish date (1970, aka year zero) is the best, I
think.

So I'm closing this bug report.

-- 
(domestic pets only, the antidote for overdose, milk.)
   bloggy blog: http://lars.ingebrigtsen.no

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