after processing a confirm in the subject line, the body should be ignored (v2.1b1)
Hi all,
if you send a "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" command via email to list-request@mailmanhost you get a confirmation message in reply which says "To confirm that you want to be removed from this mailing list, simply reply to this message, keeping the Subject: header intact.".
If you do so, but include the body of the confirm message, you get TWO messages back: a success message and a long error message stating "There were problems with the email commands you sent".
I find this confusing and think you cannot expect everyone to understand "reply" as "reply with an empty body". I would therefore propose the following behaviour change:
After a confirm command from the Subject: header field of a message is processed successfully, the body of this message is ignored (not processed).
--
Georg Koch (koch@cochrane.de) | Phone: +49 761 203 6710 German Cochrane Centre | Fax: +49 761 203 6712 Mail: Institute of Medical Biometry and Medical Informatics Stefan-Meier-Strasse 26, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany "All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure." (Mark Twain)
Oh yes! So much confusion... this is very much needed.
If you want to be a bit more subtle, you could decide not to report errors if the first command was successful and no error was detected between two successful commands. Examples :
command one (success) cottand two (failure : typo) command three (success)
this should report an error, because it's usually coming from someone "who knows"
command one (success) whatever (failure) whatever else (failure) ...
this should reply "correct"
@ Georg Koch <gorg@sun1.imbi.uni-freiburg.de> :
Hi all,
if you send a "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" command via email to list-request@mailmanhost you get a confirmation message in reply which says "To confirm that you want to be removed from this mailing list, simply reply to this message, keeping the Subject: header intact.".
-- Fil
"GK" == Georg Koch <gorg@sun1.imbi.uni-freiburg.de> writes:
GK> if you send a "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" command via email
GK> to list-request@mailmanhost you get a confirmation message in
GK> reply which says "To confirm that you want to be removed from
GK> this mailing list, simply reply to this message, keeping the
GK> Subject: header intact.".
GK> If you do so, but include the body of the confirm message, you
GK> get TWO messages back: a success message and a long error
GK> message stating "There were problems with the email commands
GK> you sent".
GK> I find this confusing and think you cannot expect everyone to
GK> understand "reply" as "reply with an empty body". I would
GK> therefore propose the following behaviour change:
GK> After a confirm command from the Subject: header field of a
GK> message is processed successfully, the body of this message is
GK> ignored (not processed).Please take a look at the new command processor in MM2.1b2. I think it's a lot better (hopefully you'll agree. ;).
-Barry
participants (3)
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barry＠zope.com -
Fil -
Georg Koch