ietf-822
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Re: Understanding response protocols

2004-09-17 18:06:12

Russ Allbery wrote:

 I don't see any feasible solution to this problem that
doesn't require changing all of the UAs over time; even Bruce's solution
of replying to either From or Reply-To requires changing all the UAs to
add an option to reply to From, ignoring Reply-To, and to remove the
option to reply to Reply-To+To+Cc.)

To clarify:

Several UAs already provide separate reply-to-author functions, and
would not need to be modified.  Many others provide other more-or-
less intuitive methods to do the same (double-clicking or right-
clicking on the From line in a GUI, for example, or via cut-and-
paste).  That latter set of UAs is still usable, though perhaps
requires slightly more user effort to reply-to-author.  But that's
already the case for a recipient who wishes to override Reply-To
and reply instead to the mailbox(es) in the From field...

Some sort of broad reply-to-all function is probably desirable,
as least as a starting point for a respondent to reduce the
recipient list, so I'm certainly not proposing that such a broad
response function be prohibited or deprecated; indeed it may be
useful to extend it to include the From field as well as the others.

There is also a crucial difference in *which* UAs need to be
modified in order to support specific functionality, and whether
or not other messaging components should be modified. Something
like MFT, for instance, requires changes to senders' and
recipients' UAs and to any MSAs and MTAs that rewrite address
fields.