On 03/11 02:00 , Dave Sherohman wrote:
> On Wed, Mar 10, 2010 at 04:14:17PM -0600, Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote:
> > On 03/10 04:02 , Mike Miller wrote:
> > > The other messages had only the list address in the Reply-To field, but 
> > > this message (that I am now replying to) had both the sender address and 
> > > the list address in the Reply-To field.  I guess if the sender sets 
> > > Reply-To himself, then the list appends to that.
> > 
> > Thanks for noticing that Mike.
> > So if you want to have replies go directly to you; put your address in the
> > Reply-To: header. Mutt will respond to both; not sure of the behavior of
> > other MUAs.
> 
> Carl, did you deliberately set it up that way or is that the default
> behavior of the list management software?

The doco for mailman seemed to indicate that when the reply-to header was
set to point to the mailing list, that it would strip other reply-to
headers. That said, there is also a setting available that will strip
preexisting reply-to headers.

> Either way, that doesn't seem right to me.  Normally, lists which set
> Reply-To will only add it if it is not present and leave it alone if the
> user has already inserted their own Reply-To header.

The problem with this is that the behavior is inconsistent from message to
message. When replying to some people's messages, the 'reply' function will
go to the list; and with other messages the same keystrokes will reply to
the sender. This violates the principle of least surprise. I personally use
mutt and when I'm composing a message I don't have the 'To:' field visible.
Combine that with how fast and easy it is to use mutt; and it's really easy
to pay absolutely no attention to where the message is going. I *expect* the
message to return from whence it came -- and if it came from a mailing list
(which is a proxy for the original sender) then it should return along the
same path. 

Really, how many people send you messages with a different Reply-To: header?
It's valid; but unusual in practice and would tend to make me suspicious.

I'm reasonably happy with the list behavior as it is. Nothing will satisfy
everyone tho.

-- 
Carl Soderstrom
Systems Administrator
Real-Time Enterprises
www.real-time.com