[OT] no Reply-To: header

[Joe(theWordy)Philbrook]

It would appear that on Apr 8, Gerrit did say:

> Joolz wrote:
> > This is not a fedora question, but her is goes...
> > 
> > Many people on this (and other) mailing list(s) don't use a "Reply-To:
> > [list]". I use Mutt, is there a way to have Mutt use the To: address
> > (not the From: address) when making a reply? Thanks!
> 
> Reply-To is bad. http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html
> 
> Summary:
> 
> Many people want to munge Reply-To headers. They believe it makes reply-to-list easier, and it encourages more list traffic. It really does neither, and is a very poor idea. Reply-To munging suffers from the following problems:
> 
>     * It violates the principle of minimal munging.
>     * It provides no benefit to the user of a reasonable mailer.
>     * It limits a subscriber's freedom to choose how he or she will direct a response.
>     * It actually reduces functionality for the user of a reasonable mailer.
>     * It removes important information, which can make it impossible to get back to the message sender.
>     * It penalizes the person with a reasonable mailer in order to coddle those running brain-dead software.
>     * It violates the principle of least work because complicates the procedure for replying to messages.
>     * It violates the principle of least surprise because it changes the way a mailer works.
>     * It violates the principle of least damage, and it encourages a failure mode that can be extremely embarrassing -- or worse.
>     * Your subscribers don't want you to do it. Or, at least the ones who have bothered to read the docs for their mailer don't want you to do it. 
> 
> Gerrit.

OK suppose for the sake of argument, that we would all, given the
benefit of your knowledge, come to the same conclusion that Reply-To:
munging is as bad as you and Chip seam to think. 

And suppose that we convinced RedHat to modify mailman's behavior to
stop munging the Reply-To: header.

How would list subscribers then use a reply function to send a list reply?
(Pardon my ignorance, but I don't really know how it's supposed to be
done...)
Is the recommended method to munge or append the Cc: header???

Personally I think putting the list address in the Cc: would add the kind
of reply to sender /reply to group functionality Chip talks about even
to classic unix mail clients like mail/mailx, which no doubt, some of the
subscribers to at least some of RedHat's list still use. But it's to
simple a solution for me to think it's the "standard" process for
mailing lists. 

I also think that on one point at least, I agree with Chip's point that
sometimes the Sender may not be sending mail "from" a mail address
on which he/she can receive replies, in which case, If mailman is going
to munge an existing Reply-To: with the list address, shouldn't the
original Reply-To: be at least added to the Cc: list?


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