[Mailman-Developers] Fix for bug "incoming/64"--the prefix replication problem

[Harald Meland]

[Dan Delaney]

> Anyway, this would make the following subject line...
> 
>    Subject: Re: [MyList] Re: Fwd: [MyList] Re: Hello there (fwd)
> 
> ...end up looking like this:
> 
>    Subject: [MyList] Re: Hello there

So, if I send a mail with subject

  Subject: Administrivia: [foo] will be changed to [bar]

Mailman should change it to

  Subject: [foo] Administrivia: will be changed to [bar]

?  I don't think messing with the subject prefix to that extent is a
good idea.  Regarding stripping of consecutive "Re:" and "Fwd:"
strings -- you'd still have problems with the nationalized versions of
these ("SV:", "AD:", etc.) that some MUA vendors in their infinite
wisdom have implemented, and besides this too have potential problems
with stripping away substrings that really was meant to stay where
they where.

> The result is that your list messages always have readable,
> comprehendable subjects that don't take 5 minutes to decode, AND
> your list archives are much more functional and easier to browse
> because messages which REALLY have the same subject won't be bogged
> down with 'Re:'s and 'Fwd:'s.

I think this "problem" should be solved in the user's MUA
configuration (if the user wants the subjects mangled) and/or in the
archiver thread generator.

The archiver thread generator could be made to display sender address
for all messages in the thread, but only display the subject at the
top of the thread and every time the subject changes _substantially_.
Non-substantial subject changes could e.g. be defined as changes which
only include addition or removal of "Re:", "Fwd:" and instances of the
subject prefix.  The _real_ subjects, looking just the way they were
sent (modulo subject prefix), would be available in the archive of
each particular message.

Example:

Instead of having the archive thread view look like this:

 * [Mailman-Developers] foobar gazonk   --   Harald Meland
     Re: [Mailman-Developers] foobar gazonk   --   Barry A. Warsaw
       Re: [Mailman-Developers] florp   --   Harald Meland

it could look like this:

 * Harald Meland   --   [Mailman-Developers] foobar gazonk
     Barry A. Warsaw
       Harald Meland   --   [Mailman-Developers] florp

(though I admit that it isn't entirely intuitive that "Barry
A. Warsaw" is a link to an archived message and not a mailto: URL in
this context.)
-- 
Harald