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Started by Marshall Rose
Tue, 18 Nov 1986 09:01
Re: Replying to Sender or (gasp) Return-path
Author: Marshall Rose
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1986 09:01
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 1986 09:01
28 lines
2058 bytes
2058 bytes
This is NOT, repeat NOT, a case of DWIM. The issue is simple: mail
composers should use "reply-to if" they want to redirect replies
that would normally go to the "from" field; mail repliers should
honor "reply-to" over "from", but need to be able to do something if
neither field is present. This is yet another example of the trite
"be conservative in what you send, liberal in what you accept".
This emphasizes the key point of my original message: the sender
can use "reply-to", but it is upto the receiver to do the right
thing. The right thing is to use "reply-to" or "from" for the
primary recipient(s) of the reply. There is no concrete right thing
for generating the list of secondary recipients (usually to and cc
are the right thing, at the user's option). For example, my
original message had a "reply-to" of header-people, and my mailbox
did NOT appear anywhere in the message except for "from". I assume
that Mark explicitly added my address to his reply. In this case
the mail composer used "reply-to" to redirect replies, and the mail
replier did not honor this protocol.
A final note: do not, as your previous message suggests, mistake
the operation of replying with other message-handling functions
(e.g., forwarding, and so on). If you want to send the message to
someone who will fix it up, you are NOT replying to the message.
You are sending a message with a different purpose, not a reply to
the original!
/mtr
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