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July 2025

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[Bug 2117089] [NEW] Add support for the traditional placement of "Re:" in subject
by Lastique July 17, 2025

July 17, 2025

Public bug reported: Currently, mailman3 automatically moves the "Re:" prefix in the subject of a post after the mailing list tag. For example, if a user sends a reply to a post with subject "[tag] Title", his mail client will typically generate a new subject "Re: [tag] Title", which is then converted by mailman3 to "[tag] Re: Title" and then sent to the other recipients of the mailing list. This behavior creates a problem when recipients create replies to this reply. Let's consider an example, where a user has configured email filters that place all posts from a mailing list (ML) to a dedicated email folder. The user uses a mail client, such as Thunderbird, to send and receive posts. Most mail clients only support "Re:" prefix in the beginning of the subject, and if the prefix is not found there, the mail client will add a new one. So replying to the message with subject "[tag] Re: Title" will create a new subject "Re: [tag] Re: Title". Although mailman3 will remove the leading "Re:" prefix upon receiving the post, the original post will still be saved with subject "Re: [tag] Re: Title" in the mailbox of the sender. This is because the mail service (e.g. GMail) will put the sent message with the duplicate "Re:" prefixes to the ML folder, according to its filters. This means that the user will see a mixture of messages in the ML folder - some with duplicate "Re:" prefixes and some with the mailman3-style prefixes. This inconsistency makes reading the posts more difficult, especially if the user prefers a flat list of messages ordered by date instead of threaded view. This issue asks to make this mailman3 behavior configurable, so that there is an option to disable it and always maintain "Re:" prefixes in the beginning of the subject line. I believe, this was possible in some older mailman versions through the OLD_STYLE_PREFIXING option; this issue asks to restore that functionality. I'll add that "Re:" prefix in the beginning of the subject line is the norm in email correspondence and the vast majority of mailing lists I participate in. It is also the way how subjects of e.g. GitHub and GitLab notifications are formatted. This placement allows to avoid the duplicate "Re:" prefixes. ** Affects: mailman Importance: Undecided Status: New -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Mailman Coders, which is subscribed to GNU Mailman. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2117089 Title: Add support for the traditional placement of "Re:" in subject To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/mailman/+bug/2117089/+subscriptions

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