[Mailman-Users] Reply-to options not working

[Jordan Brown]

On 1/29/2018 9:56 PM, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
>  > (And that's another of the key items:  the "Reply-To: <list>"
>  > configuration makes it *difficult* to reply to the author, and that
>  > seems just plain rude.)
>
> Why?  Nobody is talking about taking away anybody's Reply-To-Author
> function, and nobody says you personally have to bind "smart reply" to
> anything in your MUA.

If you have "smart reply" as a separate function, yes.  If you have the
typical "Reply" and "Reply All", and the mailing list software sets
"Reply-To: <list>", then replying to the author is awkward and
error-prone.  RFC-compliant MUAs are unlikely to have a simple operation
that replies to the sender.


>  > Side question:  when you have a message addressed to multiple
>  > mailing lists, what does "reply to list" even mean?
>
> Long answer: click here -> https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2369
> Short answer: List-Post may occur at most once.  It goes there.

So for the general case where you might have gotten a message directly,
and through list A, and through list B, the result is random unless you
pay careful attention to how you got this particular copy of the message.

>  > Note also that the MailMan UI says "Where are replies to list messages
>  > directed? Poster is /strongly /recommended for most mailing lists." so
>  > it's not just me.
>
> Opposing "Reply-To munging" is nowhere near advocating restricting
> reply UI to "Reply-to-Author" and "Reply-to-All", no more, no less.
> In fact, my opposition to Reply-To munging is a good part of *why* I
> think "smart reply" would be a useful addition to AOL's MUA, inter alia.

OK, so maybe we aren't so far off alignment.  We might choose different
options, but that's OK.

It sounds like neither of us want the list to set "Reply-To: <list>".

You want a "smart reply" button that sends to Reply-To, List-Post, or
From, in that order.  (Right?)
I want plain "reply" that sends to Reply-To or From, in that order.  (I
don't mind if it's renamed to "Reply to Author".)

I wouldn't use your "smart reply" button, because I think it does the
wrong thing for mailing lists, but if you want to do the wrong thing
with your replies, I guess that's up to you.

My only fear is that in the ongoing simplification (dumbing-down?) of
this stuff, "smart reply" will become the only option.  And, actually,
if that happens then I *have* lost the "reply to author" function.