Re: how to reply to mailing list address by default?
On Thu, Jul 21, 2005 at 01:05:39PM +0200, Thomas Roessler wrote:
> On 2005-07-20 17:07:37 -0400, Mark E. Mallett wrote:
>
> > now that I realize that, I'll be adding it to my incoming
> > mutt-users messages if it's not already set to something.
>
> Don't do that... Mail-Followup-To works well when it's under the
> control of a message's sender -- for instance, it's a way of saying
> "please don't send me a copy when responding" (Mail-Followup-To:
> list), or of saying "I'd like a separate copy" (no MFT header), or
> of saying "Please copy these people, I think they would like a
> separate response" (MFT: list, some people).
>
> If you modify the header on incoming messages, or when it's added by
> mailing list software, then this kind of expressivity is taken away
> from message authors. And that's a bad thing.
Not at all. See where I said "if it's not already set to something" ..
As somebody else mentioned later, that kind of expressivity on the part
of the sender is taken away by other things: for instance, by the fact
that few mail clients pay attention to it anyway. And that in any
event, such an expression is only advisory; a person can control how
their own message is sent, but other members of a mailing list will
still want to direct their replies in the way that they want.
It is much more practical for me to use this as a way to control my own
use of my own mailbox, rather than try to pretend that it lets me
control other people's use of their mailboxes. You might as well advise
me not to use "L" or "subscribe" to affect the way I reply to mailing
list mail, because my use of this does the exact same thing for me, only
in a more consistent way.
There's always controversy about how people should post to mailing
lists. No matter what you do, some set of people are going to be
offended or tell you you are wrong. If you want an idea of a way to
automate some control over your own mailbox (not to add control, mind
you, just to help you do the things you can do anyway), this is one
idea. If you do it, it doesn't affect anybody but you. Don't use it if
you don't want to. It certainly helps me on some lists.
> (Oh, and the right function to use for replies to mailing list
> messages is really group-reply, with $honor_followup_to set. ;-)
Yep, and if you do this when no Mail-Followup-To was in the message, you
are going to contribute to Cc chaining, which offends one subset of
people.
mm