Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (3232 mails)

[Basil Chupin <blchupin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

ken wrote:
> Basil Chupin wrote:
>> ken wrote:
>>> Patrick Shanahan wrote:
>>>> .... add the header "Reply-To: opensuse@xxxxxxxxxxxx" to all
>>>> opensuse list mail.  When you decide to post an answer or comment to an
>>>> opensuse posting, "reply" will select opensuse@xxxxxxxxxxxx address.
>
[pruned]

>> I am not into this thing anymore (after years of arguments in the
>> Fidonet world back in late 80's early 90's) about RFCs, but just on the
>> above point.
> 
> I can relate.  I've been doing email lists since 1981 and they've always
> functioned in the way you describe below (what I've termed alternately
> the intelligent/sensible method).  Those in the opposing ("correct")
> camp draw on one sentence in RFC 2822 which suggests that no one should
> change the contents of the author's Reply-To field, therefore the
> mailing list software should leave it alone and the default Reply-To is
> always the poster instead of the list.


> It seems to me that the recipient of an email *can* alter the Reply-To
> field of an incoming email.  Indeed, I can take an email I receive and
> send or not send my reply to it to anyone I please.  As the recipient of
> the email, I can even delete the email if that's what I want to do.  So
> I don't see how that one sentence in RFC 2822 applies to any recipient
> of any email.

<Groan> You are doing it, aren't you? You are drawing me into something
I don't want to touch and haven't touched since early 90's :-) . But,
OK, you've done it :-) .

Have to disagree with you. Let's not touch on the subject of e-mail
because there are 2 types of e-mail: the private ones and the ones which
end up here- in a public forum but distributed in e-mail form.

With respect of *private* e-mail you have no right to distribute it to
anyone else UNLESS you obtain the permission of the sender.

Re the e-mails which end up here, while the privacy thing is irrelevant
-- but CROSS-POSTING would be - you do not have the right to alter the
contents et al. because you are not the author/owner of the e-mail. YOur
mail should be transmitted in its original form and without any alterations.


> Now isn't the list server the recipient of my (and all subscribers')
> emails?  After all, that's where I'm (and all subscribers are) sending
> email.  So as the recipient of my and others' email, just as I am
> allowed to change the Reply-To field, I believe the list server is
> likewise allowed to alter the Reply-To field... and _should_ in a
> sensible way, in a way which makes it a many-to-many technology by
> default, i.e., without need of a separate, "correct" email client or
> cludges or technical workarounds on the client side, a way which allows
> even Windows users to participate in this list.
> 
> This doesn't mean that a list server is permitted to change anything
> else in subscribers' emails, not the body or the "Sender" or "From" or
> "Date" fields.  Just the Reply-To.  Therefore, in the rare instance when
> I want to reply only to the author of an email sent to the list, then I
> can do that also.

Now, having said what I said above, can you point out to me ANY e-mail
message which has come to this forum that has a REPLY-TO field in it?

I can't see one in any of the messages I have looked at. To me that
means that the author/sender did *not* have this field in his/her
original message and therefore *this* (SuSE) server can add this field
to all the e-mails which arrive in this forum.

End of story :-) .


Cheers.


-- 
This computer is environment-friendly and is running on OpenSuSE 10.1