Basil Chupin wrote:
ken wrote:
Basil Chupin wrote:
ken wrote:
Patrick Shanahan wrote:
.... add the header "Reply-To: opensuse@opensuse.org" to all opensuse list mail. When you decide to post an answer or comment to an opensuse posting, "reply" will select opensuse@opensuse.org 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 :-) .
Sorry. Didn't intend this. :)
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.
I don't think the public-private distinction is relevant or helpful here. There is, however, a distinction between emails which are confidential and those that are public. If I get an email about a music festival with the location included, I don't think I have to get the author's permission to resend it to others. If I get an email about a party at somebody's house with the address included, that should be considered confidential unless the resident of the house says it's okay to resend it. If I get an email from someone saying they have an embarrassing rash, that's confidential and shouldn't be resent (without the author's permission). But if I get an email about embarrassing rashes in general, without naming names, I don't see a problem resending it without the author's permission. As it pertains to a mailing list, confidentiality is not an issue. (If someone accidentally sends confidential content to a mailing list, we could hope it wouldn't be resent, but accidents are yet another issue.) On a mailing list it's implied, even expected, that emails we send to that list will be resent to others on the list. By subscribing to the list, I am giving my permission for emails I send to the list to be resent to others on this list and the converse. In fact, that's why I joined the list to begin with.
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.
Yeah, I'd agree that we shouldn't edit others' email in a way which misrepresents what they said. But we expect that list servers will add headers to the emails we send it and receive from it.
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?
If you put one in when you send an email to the list, the server (currently) leaves it there.
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.
That's what it looks like.
End of story :-) .
Hope it was a happy ending.
Cheers.
Back at ya.