Re: [Gnu-arch-users] fixing the problem of posting to the old mailing list

[Christian Ullrich]

* Robert Anderson wrote on Tuesday, 2003-08-19:

> > google for `reply-to munging considered harmful'
> 
> I did.  It seems to me most of the points they make are wrong.
> 
> It Adds Nothing: wrong.  It adds the ability to reply to list _only_
> with the default action. The author willfully seems to ignore this
> consistently.

The author correctly and consistently assumes that nobody who
participates in mailing lists will insist on using an MUA which does
not support participation in mailing lists.

> It Makes Things Break: Yes, but also vice-versa.  The question is what
> is more important to have be broken, the default behavior, or something
> which is rarely done?

Not to munge breaks nothing. All addresses -- the sender's, the
list's, the sender's indicated reply address -- are obvious from the
information contained in the mail, so that all standards compliant
tools will work fine. Munging, OTOH, removes the ability to reply
privately to the message's author without manually typing in an
address -- which may well be the wrong one, unless the list software
"fixes" From: also.

> Principle of Least Work:  This is exactly backward.  For the common case
> (reply to list only), the munging case is much easier.  He's saying that
> "group" replies can be used as-is.  Except that this sends duplicate
> replies, which is not what most people want, in my experience.  c.f.
> recent mail to Miles about this on the list (hey, stop sending me
> duplicates!).

Well, in the special case of this list alone, there is a simple
remedy. It goes as follows: "You are participating in a list about a
tool used only and exclusively in software development. Since you
intend to write to the list, and not only read the traffic, you must
be involved in software development yourself. So don't complain
about bugs in the software you use, but help fix them."

> Principle of Least Surprise:  also wrong, in my experience.  Since most
> lists "munge" it's what I expect.

To paraphrase Linus Torvalds: Shut up and show me the numbers.

I'm currently on about twenty lists. Not a single one of them
munges. (I'm fairly certain about this, but I, too, use an MUA that
is designed with lists in mind and handles even munging lists
gracefully, so mostly I don't notice the difference.)

Most of them even recognize that today's M[DU]As have learned to
filter by other things than the subject (hint, hint).

-- 
Christian Ullrich                  Registrierter Linux-User #125183

"There's nothing we can't face -- except for Bun-bun..."