[Mailman-Users] approval via e-mail, unexpected Re: behavior

[Mark Sapiro]

Lauren Weinstein wrote:

>Greetings.  I've just started transmissions on my first Mailman-hosted
>direct participation list, and I've noticed a couple of oddities, both
>likely the result of configuration issues.
>
> - Attempts to approve or reject moderated postings via e-mail
>   fail.  The reason is obvious -- the message header subject
>   simply says that attention is required, while the actual submitted
>   message is buried deep within.  Message replies go back
>   to list-owner, without apparently triggering any further
>   processing by mailman relating to the approval (or rejection).
>   Is a configuration problem indicated?

You need to reply to the embedded message or simply craft a new message
To: the listname-request address with Subject: confirm whatever the
token in the subject of the embedded message/rfc822 part is.

Then add Approved: list_password as a header or as the first body line
of the reply if you want to approve the message, or don't add the
Approved: if you want to discard the message.

If you're MUA is sufficiently mime aware, you can just open the
message/rfc822 sub part and reply to it, but not all MUAs will do this
or do it correctly.

> - When a user replies to a message such as:
>   Subject: [List] topic
>
>   The resulting reply subject header is:
>   Subject: Re: [List] topic
>
>   rather than:
>
>   Subject: [List] Re: [List] topic
>
>   Is this the expected behavior?  I had assumed that the list name
>   would always appear immediately after Subject:.

In Mailman versions through 2.1.5, if [List] or whatever the subject
prefix is is anywhere in the subject, it will just be left where it is
and not repeated.

This optionally changes in 2.1.6 where if you set OLD_STYLE_PREFIXING =
No in mm_cfg.py, the existing prefix will always be moved to the
beginning of the Subject:

--
Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan