Re: About to-addresses and followup [poll]

[Sudish Joseph <joseph@cis.ohio-state.edu>]

Sten Drescher writes:
> In list.ding, Sudish Joseph <joseph@cis.ohio-state.edu> said:
SJ> Steven L Baur writes:
>>> How will gnus-auto-mail-to-author relate?
SJ> It doesn't enter the picture for mailgroups.
> 	It doesn't?  Then why did Gnus CC: both Steve Baur (from the To:
> header) and you (from the From: header) (before I edited the header to
> remove Steve)?

Traditionally, mail agents have provided (at least) 2 forms of the
"reply" function with respect to who gets copies of the reply.  

The first form is where you wish to reply to only the sender(s) of the
message, ignoring all others who received a copy of the same message.
GNUS binds this action to `r' in the summary.

The second form is where you reply to everyone who received a copy of
the original message + the sender(s).  GNUS binds this to `f' in the
summary. 

Every MUA I've seen supports this distinction.  The important thing to
note here is that the sender always gets a copy of the reply, unless
the user explicitly deletes her address.  GNUS breaks an important
element in this with it's behaviour w.r.t. a user pressing `f' in a
group where to-address is defined--everyone _except_ the sender
receives a copy.  Very weird and confusing, IMO.

gnus-auto-mail-to-author fills a different need.  Unlike in mail (or
mailing lists, which are _NOT_ newsgroups, though we're lucky enough
to have a common interface to both), netiquette demands that you read
the group that you post a question to.  In such a situation, it is
superfluous to email a copy of the article you've posted back to the
author.  In some cases, it is useful to CC: a copy--unreliable/slow
newsfeeds, faster transmission, etc.  This is where
gnus-auto-mail-to-author comes in.

Or you could 'agrep -d defun gnus-auto-mail-to-author gnus-msg.el' and
see that it only occurs in functions that post to USENET.  :)

-Sudish