Re: Request: ding subscribers' group parameter

[Karl Kleinpaste <karl@charcoal.com>]

prj@po.cwru.edu (Paul Jarc) writes:
> Since Gnus now respects Mail-Followup-To, it'd be better to encourage
> people to add that field to outgoing messages.

Let me see if I've got this straight:

Gnus provides a feature explicitly designed¹ to eliminate duplicate
copies to individuals inhabiting mailing lists.  This feature works
every single time, in every single instance, if only the list
subscribers will deploy it as intended.  Yet we should ignore this
feature, instead in favor of Yet Another Header.

Right.  Just checking.

> I think the best way
> to do this would be to look at the current group's parameters; if
> there is a to-address or to-list parameter and its address is included
> in To+Cc, then we should generate MFT.

"If there is a to-address" in the group parameters...?

If every ding subscriber would use to-address, then the point would
be moot, as the problem would already be solved in the manner suggested.

There is _no reason_ for any ding subscriber /not/ to be using to-address.

I mean, the suggestion was merely to put this valuable Gnus property
to use.  You'd think that Gnus' own development crew would be the very
*first* to put it to use, uniformly and correctly.  It's a no-brainer,
involving the sequence
          M-C-e ((to-address . "ding@gnus.org")) C-c C-c
as you read this message, with minor modifications if you have to
insert the to-address element into a set of other existing parameters.
Instead of everyone just doing that, and the problem disappearing in
the course of a single day, we now have a full-blown discussion over
code changes in order to handle non-existent failure cases in what is
already the default situation when the property is properly in use.

Do I have that right?

If you want to insert MFT headers, fine, but "to-address" provides
exactly the feature you're looking for on *this* list, among *this*
universe of subscribers.  And the price of lunch says MFTs won't do a
bit of good on yahoogroups mailing lists, where Joe Random Users from
all over the planet are still using Outlook Express as packaged with
Win98 which has no awareness of MFT at all.

Solve the problems you can, where you can, as simply as you can.
          M-C-e ((to-address . "ding@gnus.org")) C-c C-c
Do it.  _*/Problem solved./*_

yes, i'm annoyed,
--karl

¹ *Info* -> Gnus -> Group Buffer -> Group Parameters, "to-address":

    "This is primarily useful in mail groups that represent closed
     mailing lists--mailing lists where it's expected that everybody
     that writes to the mailing list is subscribed to it.  Since using
     this parameter ensures that the mail only goes to the mailing list
     itself, it means that members won't receive two copies of your
     followups."