[Mailman-Users] first names shown

[Dave Sherohman]

On Tue, Apr 16, 2002 at 07:57:26PM -0400, Beachfrontads at aol.com wrote:
> How do I need to do to keep my user's first names from being shown on their 
> mailings?

Short, but not entirely accurate, version:

You don't.  The sender controls how their name is listed according to
their own personal preference.


Longer, more complex, but more accurate version:

In theory, you could run incoming messages through a filter that
strips first names out of the From: header before mailman gets the
message.  In practice, however, this is non-trivial.  Aside from the
obvious matter that my From: could contain "Dave Sherohman
<esper at sherohman.org>", "Sherohman, Dave <esper at sherohman.org>", or
even "esper at sherohman.org <Dave Sherohman>" (I think - it's not
normal usage, but I think I've seen it before), there are also the
more esoteric possibilities such as "Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle
<tarzan at jungle.net>", "Ming the Merciless <ming at flash.net>", or "Sith
Master <vader at sith.edu>".  How it a piece of software going to
accurately determine what is a first name and what isn't?  Good
luck...

-- 
When we reduce our own liberties to stop terrorism, the terrorists
have already won. - reverius

Innocence is no protection when governments go bad. - Tom Swiss