[Bug 266269] Re: Default list signature blocks do not follow good netiquette

Ralph Corderoy ralph at inputplus.co.uk
Sun May 7 11:43:40 EDT 2017


I realise I might not have been clear what with joining onto someone
else's bug report.  I agree it should be the list owner's choice and
that they already have this choice just by starting the footer with
"--␣\n", as I do.

Given that, my suggestion is DEFAULT_MSG_FOOTER in Defaults.py gains
that prefix so new lists start with a sig and the owner can change it to
non-sig rather than the other way around.  Existing lists certainly
shouldn't be switched.  Many list owners don't know about sigs so it's
not as if they've made a conscious decision to stick with Mailman's
non-sig choice.  Making sig the default for new lists would help these
owners get it "right".

I take your point about not if in a separate MIME part, etc., but my
manual sig setting makes it through to a separate MIME part today so
altering DEFAULT_MSG_FOOTER would be no worse off.  Implementing a new
"make footer a sig" Boolean, with all the considerations you mention
taken into account, sounds more 3.0-ish.  (I've no idea what 3.0 has
done in this area.)

So prefixing DEFAULT_MSG_FOOTER so an owner can delete the sig prefix 
seems an easy change and gives a result no worse than my persuading each
owner individually that they should switch, once they learn the sig
technology exists.

A weaker alternative would be to alter DEFAULT_MSG_FOOTER's help text to
explain how to make it a sig, and why it's beneficial, referencing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_block#Signatures_in_Usenet_postings

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/266269

Title:
  Default list signature blocks do not follow good netiquette

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