mail followups (was Re: [ILUG] DHCP on home LAN?)

Paul Jakma paul at clubi.ie
Thu Nov 11 13:15:04 GMT 2004


On Thu, 11 Nov 2004, John P. Looney wrote:

> Do remember that who gets CC'd on replies is ultimately up to the 
> sender of the email, not the sender of the original. Usually, 
> they'll just want to reply to the list, unless there is a really 
> good reason, no ?

Also note that mutt does not insert Mail-Followup-To headers. The way 
I read the draft, it *should*, if the intention is to direct replies 
to list. DJB's Mail-Followup-To document, 
http://cr.yp.to/proto/replyto.html, also notes that the /absence/ of 
this header should lead to using From, Cc and Reply-To as per normal.

So, the way mutt has chosen to implement this is just b0rken, its 
probably the worst way they could have gone about it and succeeds 
only in pandering to people who dont want personal+list replies and 
who can not comprehend that the personal reply *is* useful if you 
filter your mail: "i dont see the point, so i dont see why anyone 
else should need it", sigh.

I agree with the sentiment behind the use of this header, namely that 
there should be a way to be able to specify where you want personal 
replies to go, where you want list/group replies to go. But 
Mail-Followup-To doesnt achieve that either - most definitely not as 
implemented by mutt.

What a mess.

What's needed obviously is to get some headers standardised that 
satisfactorily solve the personal/group reply-to preferences 
problems, and get widespread support from them.

> John

regards,
-- 
Paul Jakma	paul at clubi.ie	paul at jakma.org	Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
Idleness is the holiday of fools.



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