Subject: Re: bug#335: bug tracking system leads to duplicate replies appearing

From: Don Armstrong <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:50:41 -0700

On Fri, 30 May 2008, Joe Wells wrote:
> Even if this is so for one mailing list, it might not be the case
> for other mailing lists. So people can not in general rely on the
> behavior of any “reply” function of their mail program to reach the
> right people.

That's why you use reply-to-list, which obeys Mail-Followup-To: which
people can easily use to indicate that they should be Cc:'ed or not.

reply-to-all is a ugly work-around for bad MUAs and people who don't
know any better. [It leads to duplicate messages...]

> In this case, a good solution is that the bug tracking software
> could make sure to always omit [email-masked] from the list
> of recipients whenever [email-masked] is going to be
> one of the recipients.

That would require prescience, which isn't going to happen. To:
message headers don't necessarily indicate who actually received a
message.

> I notice that you just now have started adding a Mail-Followup-To
> header.

I always add MFT if I want a copy, and don't when I don't.

> This is a good idea. I notice that [email-masked] is not in
> the Mail-Followup-To header. I'm curious, how does your software
> know to omit this address?

It doesn't. I put it in when I need it.

Don Armstrong

-- 
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.     
 -- Robert Heinlein

http://www.donarmstrong.com              http://rzlab.ucr.edu