[Mailman-Developers] Reply-To: handling

[Barry A. Warsaw]

It seems to me that there are good arguments for a number of different
Reply-To: policies, and that list administrators are going to have to
make their own choice based on their membership and the way they want
their lists to behave.  I guess I'm advocating a typical politician's
exit here (some might call it wimping out ;).

There are 6 choices:

- Hands off: Mailman doesn't touch Reply-To:.  If it exists in the
  original message, it's passed through, though none is added by the
  software.

- Strip: Mailman strips all Reply-To: headers and adds none of its
  own.

- Override to list: Mailman strips any existing Reply-To: and inserts
  a Reply-To: the list address.

- Override to explicit: Mailman strips any existing Reply-To: and
  inserts a Reply-To: to an address explicitly given by the list
  admin.

- Extend to list: Mailman folds multiple and removes dup Reply-To:'s
  inserting a single header containing a list of any original
  Reply-To: addresses, plus one back to the list.

- Extend to explicit: Mailman folds multiples and removes dup
  Reply-To: inserting a single header containing a list of any
  original Reply-To: addresses, plus one explicitly given by the list
  admin.

Seems complicated, but perhaps this table leads us to the choice of
the right knobs:

               strip     add list addr      add explicit addr
------------+---------+-----------------+--------------------
hands off   |    N    |        N        |           N
	    +---------+-----------------+--------------------
strip any   |    Y    |        N        |           N
existing    |         |                 |
            +---------+-----------------+--------------------
override    |    Y    |        Y        |           N
to list     |         |                 |
            +---------+-----------------+--------------------
override    |    Y    |        N        |           Y
to explicit |         |                 |
            +---------+-----------------+--------------------
extend      |    N    |        Y        |           N
to list     |         |                 |
            +---------+-----------------+--------------------
extend      |    N    |        N        |           Y
to explicit |         |                 |


So, we have a binary control that asks "First strip all Reply-To:
fields in the original message?  No, Yes"

A radio button that asks "Then add an a Reply-To: for? Don't Add, This
List, Explicit Address (see below)"

And finally a text field for the explicit address.

We're nearly there as it is (change "Poster" to "Don't Add" since the
former makes little sense anyway).  We just need to add an option to
strip any existing Reply-To: field first.

The defaults ought to be "Don't Strip", "Don't Add".

What would also be useful, though is a set of guidelines that lay out
the issues and help a list admin decide which settings are most
appropriate for their list.  Is anybody willing to contribute a short,
concise write up, say for a List Owner's Manual?

-Barry