[Mailman-Users] 2.1.18 internal documentation suggestions

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Larry Stone writes:

 > Seems to me saying “Try to ensure that 'From:' is “aligned” with …”
 > does it.

No.  The problem is the author's email provider (ie, the mail domain
of the person whose address is in the original From).  For most lists,
Mailman does *not* want "From" to be aligned with any particular
domain, it wants to just pass "From" through.  RFC 5322 quite clear
that this is the correct behavior (as are all of its predecessors).

 > I’d prefer to put the header field name in quotes or otherwise
 > distinguish it. Otherwise, it can be difficult to parse - is “from”
 > the header or a preposition.

Sure.

 > But, I don’t like “author’s domain”. Who or what is the author?

"The author" is the person responsible for the content of the message,
per RFC 5322 (and all of its predecessors).  You could substitute "the
original 'From' address" if that seems more intelligible to
non-technical admins.

 > Why not just say “the Mailman server’s domain” since that’s what
 > it’s going to be aligned with.

That may or may not be true, depending on how the host is set up.  For
example, it may not participate in SPF or DKIM at all.  DMARC
alignment is a rather complex concept.  I do not think it's a good
idea to have sloppy wording here.