[ILUG] Faster internet connections - is this real?

[Paul Jakma]

On Tue, 24 May 2005, Timothy Murphy wrote:

> Why, as a matter of interest?

Because I filter my list email. I want an extra copy because:

- I like to retain correspondance I'm involved in (even if i purge
   old list mailboxes)

- I notice mail in my personal INBOX pretty quickly, if someone
   replies to me, I'd like to know.

(I might never read a reply to a list email if I'm not CC'd 
on it)

> Some people get hot under the collar if you don't CC to them when 
> replying to a mailing list, and others get hot under the collar if 
> you do.

Well, it's a problem of several parts:

- neither RFC822 / 822 have any good way for a user to indicate
   whether they prefer be included in list replies or not

- There is a proposal for a 'Mail-Followup-To' header to try solve
   this. It is specified on a page by DJB on cr.yp.to[1] and also as
   a long expired draft RFC[2] (which is very difficult to find)

- The proposals (iirc) differ in behaviour they reccomend

- Various MUAs have implemented this Mail-Followup-To header, in a
   variety of incompatible ways.

   This means there is no way for me to express my preference as:

   - Some MUAs implement MFT as if the whole world supported it.
     ie they assume that if it isn't there, the sender supports MFT
     and the lack of it indicates the sender doesnt want a copy

   - Some interpreting the MFT exclusively, and hence not including
     the list per default (some GNU mailer) (this is the DJB behavior,
     i think. IIRC, the DRUMS draft mandated it be interpreted as an
     additional address to include in a reply - i cant find the draft
     anymore)

   - Some MUAs ignoring it anyway (because of how they're configured?
     appears to be the case with Niall)

- There is also a (defunct i think) proposol for a Mail-Copies-To
   header[3]

The only /interoperable/ (as things stand) answers are:

- In the old days, people would just filter their email, according to
   how they wanted. Be it by filtering out duplicates or by filtering
   list + personal replies to different mailboxes.

(unfortunately, the art of filtering email appears to have been lost. 
Those without this skill obviously tend to be the ones who complain 
about duplicate copies)

- Newer versions of mailman are able to suppress delivery of the list
   copy, if the user wishes (indeed, it defaults to suppress).

   The mailman running ilug at linux.ie appears not to be recent enough
   to do this.

Both of these solutions, the *only* solutions which are guaranteed to 
work to *everyone's* satisfication, require that people reply-to-all 
on list email.

For the future, it would be nice to try get IETF to specify and, more 
importantly, standardise a way to indicate this preference - in a way 
that doesn't assume all other MUAs support it..

1. http://cr.yp.to/proto/replyto.html

2. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=draft-ietf-drums-mail-followup-to-00.txt+&btnG=Search

3. http://www.newsreaders.com/misc/mail-copies-to.html

regards,
-- 
Paul Jakma	paul at clubi.ie	paul at jakma.org	Key ID: 64A2FF6A
Fortune:
Too much of anything, even love, isn't necessarily a good thing.
 		-- Kirk, "The Trouble with Tribbles", stardate 4525.6