[tpop3d-discuss] Reply-To: munging

[Paul Makepeace]

On Wed, Jun 06, 2001 at 10:09:18AM +0100, Chris Lightfoot wrote:
>     1. replacing a proper reply-to with the list's address
>        may hide the author's intentions, making it
>        impossible to reply to an individual author;

But it doesn't. It simply changes the reply-to which any halfway decent
email client can override (for example, mutt prompts first the reply-to
then the from). I.e. this point is scaremongery & FUD at best.

Here's the funny bit: majordomo, which is probably still the most
heavily used list mangler in the world *ignores users attempts to set
reply-to* -- so, it is mangling reply-to *anyway*! Amusing when this
argument comes up on a majordomo list (which I know this [yay!] isn't).

>     2. not replacing the reply-to with the list's address
>        may lead to a substantial waste of time and
>        bandwidth as numerous addresses `snowball' into the
>        recipients for each message;

This for me is the clincher. If you're on a community list that is
encouraging discussion amongst all participants then having to
constantly trim back To: and Cc: is a waste of time and irritating to
get dupes. (Yes, I know there are some stunningly opaque procmail
solutions using databases of message-ids but not all email clients set
message-ids nor users should have the onerous task of using procmail in
its more wizardly configurations.)

>     3. inserting the name of the list in the reply-to
>        header violates the `principle of least surprise',

At this point in time, it's not even slightly surprising so this rule is
simply not applicable.

> In my opinion, whatever the strength of the other
> arguments, (1) clinches it. So, on that basis, I don't
> anticipate changing the list to munge reply-to headers.

I think it depends on the aim of the list, whether it's intended for
community discussion or thing where the replies are most likely to go to
the author. It's not black or white it depends on the situation.

Incidently, mutt has a 'subscribe' directive which allows you to list
reply with 'L'. On lists such as this it's very handy.

Paul

-- 
What would make this really successful?