Date: Mon, 14 May 2001 19:25:11 +0200 From: Gerhard Sittig <Gerhard.Sittig@gmx.net> To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: OT Reply-To: (was: Multiple copies) Message-ID: <20010514192511.U253@speedy.gsinet> In-Reply-To: <20010514112258.L253@speedy.gsinet>; from Gerhard.Sittig@gmx.net on Mon, May 14, 2001 at 11:22:58AM %2B0200 References: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0105140155160.5337-100000@prophet.alphaque.com> <3AFEDE8A.6F7F01F2@math.missouri.edu> <20010514112258.L253@speedy.gsinet>
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On Mon, May 14, 2001 at 11:22 +0200, Gerhard Sittig wrote: > > On Sun, May 13, 2001 at 14:20 -0500, Stephen Montgomery-Smith wrote: > > > > One way to resolve this could be to change the majordomo > > settings of the freebsd mailing lists so that the "Reply-To" > > field is set to e.g. freebsd-stable. > > NOOOOOO! Please don't! > > Sorry, but having suffered from this braindead "solution" > before I will always argue against it and don't even want to > hear people honestly suggest this. See > http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html for the reasons > why this is simply wrong. I've had a report from Stephen that this URL is dead. A quick search for "reply AND harmful" on www.google.com turned up this link and others which all worked fine (could have been some cache still providing the documents). So here they are for the interested readers: http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html http://www.halisp.net/halisp/reply-to-harmful.html http://blue-labs.org/BlueList/doc/reply-to-harmful.html http://marc.merlins.org/~merlin/perso/reply-to-harmful.html http://www.hackvan.com/pub/stig/rants/reply-to-considered-harmful.html and in case none of these work, Stephen and me could provide you with copies. :) And yes, I'm well aware of the "counterpart" / reply at http://www.metasystema.org/reply-to-useful.mhtml http://marc.merlins.org/~merlin/perso/reply-to-useful.html and while I agree with its aim (mainly to preserve bandwidth and not have recipients edit group-reply address lists) I do not at all agree with that Reply-To munging(!) is the solution. The only proper solution I've seen so far is the list-reply function. The "reply-to-useful" statements tumbles down as soon as the flawed assumption that Reply-To is something the list admin can fumble with without breaking the sender's request is obsolete. Once the Reply-To can only be *added* by the list admin (something the "useful" document says, too, no matter of the "munging" title) and will _not_ be added when the sender supplies one, POLA is hurt even more and we end up with an inconsistent behaviour. So I ask those complaining or wishing for a munged Reply-To field to bug their MUAs' authors to implement the simple and useful list-reply function. Best in combination with deletion keys available when editing replies, with HTML messages after three random (and difficult) questions only, and other useful features one could actually consider basic and natural. :> virtually yours 82D1 9B9C 01DC 4FB4 D7B4 61BE 3F49 4F77 72DE DA76 Gerhard Sittig true | mail -s "get gpg key" Gerhard.Sittig@gmx.net -- If you don't understand or are scared by any of the above ask your parents or an adult to help you. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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