[SWLUG] Reply-To on lists

[Dave Cridland]

On Fri May 19 13:18:43 2006, Chris M. Jackson wrote:
> On 5/19/06, Julian Hall <lists at kaotic.co.uk> wrote:
>> example, I click Reply All to this message, then Justin and Dave 
>> get
>> two copies each as well as the list.  I've noticed quite a lot in
>> mails replying to this list that more than one copy goes out.  It's
> 
> ... and if they're using sensible mail clients, it identifies
> (correctly) from the Message-Id: header that they are duplicates, 
> and
> (hopefully) discards one copy.
> 
> 
Ah, but this is a problem in as much as the client then loses the 
list-* metadata headers, since typically they discard newer copies, 
keeping the personal copy that's usually faster to arrive.

To be honest, replying to both sender and list is a little archaic 
these days. In general, it's either the sender or the list.


>> IMHO those who complain about alleged munging should think about 
>> the
>> bandwidth being wasted by multiple copies of the same email flying 
>> around.
> 
> Yes, I imagine a few extra copies of tiny email messages will bring
> the Internet *screeching* to a halt ...

There's a single-pipe bandwidth hit for duplicate recipients, and the 
sender's submission server (or its smarthost, usually the ISP's 
submission server).

The thing is that implementing reply-to-list is pretty trivial - if I 
can do it, it must be - but it's much harder to deal with the 
reply-to set to list issue. Which basically means that if your client 
doesn't have such a feature, file a bug or download an extension. I 
*think* it took me less than an afternoon to implement.

Dave.
-- 
           You see things; and you say "Why?"
   But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"
    - George Bernard Shaw