Re: reply to list (mailing list) in thunderbird?

[Hendrik Boom <hendrik@pooq.com>]

On Sun, Dec 04, 2005 at 02:03:45PM -0700, Scott wrote:
> Micha Feigin wrote:
> > Is it possible with mozilla thunderbird to do reply to list like some other
> > mailing list friendly email clients can do (such as sylpheed-claws).
> > 
> 
> I'm a Thunderbird user and I only have this problem on a few lists.  The
>  Debian lists are among those.
> 
> All the lists running on GNU Mailman (I'm surprised Debian doesn't use
> this, GNU-lovers that they are) include a "Reply-To": header with the
> mailing list address.  So in Thunderbird when you simply "reply" it goes
> to the list.  If you "Reply to All" it goes to the list and anyone else
> in the from/to/cc headers.
> 
> On the Debian lists, it's the exact opposite.

Last time this was extensively discussed, someone ran a poll of what
preferences people had in the matter.  I initially was in favour of what the
other lists did, but after hearing the arguments I changed my vote.
Not that the poll/vote would have any effect; the people in charge
of Debian policy have made the technically correct decision; the
reasons for it are explained elsewhere; someone has already posted
a link to the reasons on the current thread.

Roughly speaking, the way debian does it allows the sender to
use Reply-to himself in case he, for example, is temporarily
mailing his messge from a site he dies not usually use.  That
way, anyone repl;ying to sender will get it properly routed 
to the sender's usual email address.  Replacing the Reply-to
with the list address would make it impossible to reply to the
sender properly.

The way it's done on Debian lists is in accord with
the relevant standards; the other lists are not.  The relevant
standards also specify that mailers should be able to handle
reply-to-list as well as reply-to-sender.  So it is definitely
thunderbird that is at fault, not Debian.

Go log a bug against mozilla thunderbird on the mozilla site.  The
more people complaining the more likely something will eventually
done about it.

-- hendrik