ietf-822
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Re: Understanding response protocols

2004-09-09 15:30:36

Philip Hazel writes:
I wanted to reply ONLY to the list (because I know that's what djb wants).

Right. Despite Keith's comments about ``trust,'' this isn't some sort of
battle between the sender and receiver. We're working together to have
followups sent to ietf-822(_at_)imc(_dot_)org and not to 
djb(_at_)cr(_dot_)yp(_dot_)to:

   * I added ietf-822(_at_)imc(_dot_)org to an MUA configuration file a long 
time
     ago.

   * My MUA, seeing that ietf-822(_at_)imc(_dot_)org was in the recipient list 
for
     my message, copied the recipient list to Mail-Followup-To, leaving
     out djb(_at_)cr(_dot_)yp(_dot_)to(_dot_)

   * Philip followed up, and edited his message to omit 
djb(_at_)cr(_dot_)yp(_dot_)to
     from the recipient list. He wouldn't have had to do this manually
     if his MUA had supported Mail-Followup-To.

Let me emphasize that the goal---followups to ietf-822(_at_)imc(_dot_)org and
replies to djb(_at_)cr(_dot_)yp(_dot_)to---is _not_ achieved by the old 
protocol ``reply
to Reply-To||From; follow up to To+Cc+(Reply-To||From).'' No matter what
I put into my message, the old protocol produces a followup address list
that includes the reply address list, so it fails to achieve the goal.

---D. J. Bernstein, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics,
Statistics, and Computer Science, University of Illinois at Chicago