Re: mail-followup-to / mail-copies-to

On Sat, 28 May 2005, Paul Jakma wrote:

>> Unlikely to happen -- it is a legitimate use and may be appropriate in some 
>> contexts.
>
> Perfect.
>
>> Oh, it was supposed to be a footnote?  If you meant restricting use of
>> Reply-To, no, I don;t think it would be appropriate.
>
> Fine, in that case if the meaning of Reply-To can *not* be made 
> more specific, it's not suitable for list usage. In which case some 
> other solution is needed. Eg, 'Foo-Copy-Me'.

Another "solution" would be (as suggested by Bruce in that previous, 
older thread and also hinted at, I think, by Keith Moore) to draft 
something concerning best practice for MUAs on their interaction with 
their users, specifically in how fields such as Reply-To/From, etc.. 
are presented to the user and /base/ reccomendations on how the MUA 
should behave.

(though, I have a sneaking suspicion consensus would be just as hard 
to achieve.. but hey, worth a try).

As far I can tell, the following reccomendations /might/ be 
acceptable:

- that the MUA should allow the From field to be editable
   (this apparently would raise other questions - eg 'anonymous' mail
   ?? Also, not sure if site admins would always like this.)

- that setting From should be the preferred way to indicate author's
   preferred mailbox

- that MUAs should make their user aware of a Reply-To field in a
   mail being responded to and should engage the user in selecting the
   correct addresses to reply to.

A major part of /my/ problem with using Reply-To for directing 
list-replies is that many MUAs will then direct replies (be it 
'reply' or 'reply-all') to the mailbox(es) in the Reply-To field 
automatically *without* involving their user in this decision, with 
great risk that user doesn't even notice the redirection (and hence 
commits an indiscretion by sending a private reply to multiple 
addresses, not just the original author).

If that annoying behaviour were discouraged via an official document 
I could then whine at the implementors of such MUAs, rather than 
having to take up the time of the learned members of this list. :)

regards,
-- 
Paul Jakma	[email protected]	[email protected]	Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
You knew the job was dangerous when you took it, Fred.
 		-- Superchicken