Re: Mail-Followup-To

[Richard Coleman <coleman@math.gatech.edu>]

> > Yes, RFC 822 did not make a distinction between reply-to-author and
> > reply-to-list.  These are aspects of the mail client, not the message
> > format.  To a well-written MUA, these headers are redundant; the client
> > already makes the appropriate distinction.  A badly written MUA, one that
> > does not make the distinction, is not going to honor these headers.
> 
> Yup.  But there are useful things that can be done with these
> headers.  For instance -- on mailing lists where everyone that posts
> is assumed to be subscribed (like this one), the listserv could add a
> "Mail-Followup-To: ding@gnus.org" header.  It can also be used by the
> sender as a way to signal "I am subscribed to the list; don't Cc me or
> anybody else".

I think the proposal specifically says that mailing list managers
should NOT add this header.

A better scenario is that Gnus have a variable such as
mailing-list-addresses.  When you send a message, it compares the
address to all the addresses in this list, and adds the
"Mail-Followup-To" header if there is a match.

That way, group replies (assuming mail client that is replying
understands this header) would go back to the mailing list.

--
Richard Coleman
coleman@math.gatech.edu