[Mailman-Users] Reply to list instead of poster (was: Muti-Mailmaninstall)

[Allan Odgaard]

On 19 Jun 2008, at 15:53, Mark Sapiro wrote:

> [...] You have said in another thread that these links contribute to  
> excessive verbosity of the labels, but they often link to useful  
> supplemental information.

I don’t dispute that. I am sure there are lots of useful info there,  
but it drowns in the excessive verbosity. Take the reply-to UI in  
question:

                             Reply-To: header munging

        Should any existing Reply-To: header
            found in the original message be
          stripped? If so, this will be done  (o) No  ( ) Yes
            regardless of whether an explict
     Reply-To: header is added by Mailman or
            not. (Edit first_strip_reply_to)

          Where are replies to list messages
    directed? Poster is strongly recommended  (o) Poster  ( ) This list
        for most mailing lists. (Details for  ( ) Explicit address
                         reply_goes_to_list)

     Explicit Reply-To: header. (Details for   
[                         ]
                           reply_to_address)

That’s almost 100 words and the link that explains why the Poster  
option is recommended bears the mundane title of “(Details for  
reply_goes_to_list)” and is part of a label which is really 3 sentences.

Here is how I would change all of the above:

      List replies go to: (o) Poster (recommended, more info)
                          ( ) The list
                               [x] Strip existing Reply-To header
                          ( ) Other: [                           ]

The grouping should make it clear how the settings relate to each  
other, so no need for long explanations about the explicit Reply-To  
address etc.¹

Less text means better chance the user will read/grasp it. I only  
added one “more info” link and put it right next to the ‘recommended’  
text, so it should be clear from context that it will elaborate on why  
this is the recommended setting.



¹ The third setting is dependent on list replies going to the list and  
while it indicates that the first setting can be used even for replies  
sent to poster, that does IMHO not make much sense.