[Haskell-cafe] Re: Re: Reply-To: Header in Mailinglists

[Nick Bowler]

On 2010-11-21 08:24 +0000, Malcolm Wallace wrote:
> If the list were to add a "Reply-To:" header, but only in the case  
> where one was not already present, that would seem to me to be ideal.   
> (None of the internet polemics against Reply-To that I have seen, have  
> considered this modest suggestion.)

This still breaks the reply-to-author feature.

> In the past, I have carefully used the Reply-To header to direct  
> responses to a particular mailing list of many (e.g. when cross- 
> posting an announcement).  Yet because there is a culture of "Reply- 
> To: is bad", and most MUAs do not have a "ReplyToList" option, most  
> respondents end up pushing "Reply to all", which ignores my setting of  
> "Reply-To:", and spams more people than necessary.

MUAs will honour the Reply-To header when using the reply-to-all
function: the problem is that Reply-To does not mean what you think it
means.  The header indicates where *you* want to receive replies.  So
the reply-to-all function will reply to *you* (by using the value in
Reply-To), and to everyone else by copying the To and Cc lists.

There is another header, Mail-Followup-To, which tells MUAs to also drop
the To and CC lists.  I know several posters to this very list use it.
However, it needs to be used with care because it can fragment cross-
list discussions and/or prevent non-subscribers from receiving messages.

-- 
Nick Bowler, Elliptic Technologies (http://www.elliptictech.com/)