Subject: A feature of GNUS.

From: Michael Talbot-Wilson <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1998 18:01:05 +1030 (CST)

The following appeared on the Majordomo mailing list.  It appears
that GNUS recognises the header Mail-Copies-To which prevents
responses to the newsgroup from being mailed.

The idea for an MUA could be that a header could be set by default
such that if there was a To: which was not the recipient's address,
and the header in the original mail had survived the original
journey, the reply would go to the To: address, not the From:
address, by default.

The problem is that some mailing lists, including this one, don't
set "Reply-To:" to direct replies to the mailing list.  On such
lists there are periodically furious complaints mailed by people who
have received duplicates, one directly and one via the list, and who
are in any case prone to furious complaint over trifles.

As someone else contributed, lists that set Reply-To: [e.g. the CERT
Advisory list, Forens-L and many others] seem to not have
complaints over list operation.  I suppose, though, that their
servers have somewhat heavier load per subscriber.

The ability to set such a header by default, and respect it when
set, could provide the benefits of Reply-To without whatever
disadvantages discourage its use in some quarters.

I know that someone will say that instead of yapping about it I
should contribute a patch, but I personally am not particularly
bothered by such duplicates.  Perhaps one of those who are prone to
complain could take up the idea.

-- 
Michael Talbot-Wilson ------------------- [email-masked]
"Many good morrows to my noble lord!" - Catesby greeting Hastings
(Richard III, Act III, Scene II).

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 16 Dec 1998 15:26:15 -0600
From: Jason L Tibbitts III <[email-masked]>

...
AHK> Even Jason Cc'ed me! Aargh. And he's not even a pine user.

...
But if you really don't like the duplicates, help us out.  I use Gnus, so a
Mail-Copies-To: never header would have eliminated that CC.  One day there
will be a standard for this.  Until then, fix it on your end or stop
expecting people to be mind readers.

 - J<

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From: "Robin S. Socha" <[email-masked]>
Date: 19 Dec 1998 10:04:44 +0100

* Michael Talbot-Wilson <[email-masked]> writes:

> It appears that GNUS recognises the header Mail-Copies-To which prevents

It's called Gnus, GNUS died a couple of years ago.

[...]
> The problem is that some mailing lists, including this one, don't set
> "Reply-To:" to direct replies to the mailing list.  

Taking into account that this is not a list for user questions, it is safe
to assume that everyone here knows what they're doing. It seems a good idea
to change it.

Gnus doesn't show the mentioned behaviour by default, however, and something
like this is still on the wish list: `C-f C-t' should ask the user whether
to heed mail-copies-to: never. I would consider this a good feature in pine.

> The ability to set such a header by default, and respect it when set,
> could provide the benefits of Reply-To without whatever disadvantages
> discourage its use in some quarters.

I sense a slight misunderstanding here. IIRC, this is meant for Newsgroups,
where "X-send-copies-to: never" is to prevent Cc:s. Correct me if I'm wrong,
because I cannot find this in the Gnus info files.

But while we're at it: there is another feature of Gnus (and mutt) that seems
desirable. In Gnus it's called posting-style, in mutt folder-hook. It's a
function that lets you set e.g. your email-address depending on which folder
you're in. Very nice.

-- 
Robin S. Socha  <http://socha.net/>

---

From: Sean Farley <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1998 14:34:33 -0500 (EST)

> function that lets you set e.g. your email-address depending on which folder

That would be a nice feature.  I currently have several incoming mail
folders, and a feature to automatically set up my e-mail address would be
great.

Does it alter the From: or Reply-to: headers?

Sean
---------------
[email-masked]

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From: "Robin S. Socha" <[email-masked]>
Date: 19 Dec 1998 20:46:09 +0100

> On 19 Dec 1998, Robin S. Socha wrote:

[different header stuff]

> Does it alter the From: or Reply-to: headers?

I can only speak for Gnus:

`gnus-posting-style-alist'
  value: 
  ((organization . message-user-organization)
   (signature . message-signature)
   (signature-file . message-signature-file)
   (address . user-mail-address)
   (name . user-full-name))

At least that's what it does by default. I've once hacked it to do some
X-header stuff as well. Wasn't worth the trouble, but changing the from:
header on the fly is kinda nifty.