Re: Please, don't reply to spam -- much less on list [was: ግěcůžላኣዝዩ]

[Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org>]

On Fri, Jun 27, 2025 at 13:46:40 -0000, Greg wrote:
> On 2025-06-27, Greg Wooledge <greg@wooledge.org> wrote:
> >
> > To be clear, what we're talking about here is what mutt does when you
> > press the "b" key.  It queues up a message for delivery, where the
> 
> Bounce can and does mean a rejection of the email by the *server*, so
> your proposal seems nonsensical or confusing, as the email has
> already been delivered to its recipients.

I am not proposing anything.  I am *explaining*.

This is the terminology that mutt uses.

Is it confusing?  Yes.  Could a better word have been chosen?  Probably.
But this is what they chose.

<https://mutt.org/doc/manual/#sending-intro>

    Key   Function            Description
    m     <mail>              compose a new message
    r     <reply>             reply to sender
    g     <group-reply>       reply to all recipients
          <group-chat-reply>  reply to all recipients preserving To/Cc
    L     <list-reply>        reply to mailing list address
    f     <forward>           forward message
    b     <bounce>            bounce (remail) message
    Esc k <mail-key>          mail a PGP public key to someone

    Bouncing a message sends the message as-is to the recipient you
    specify. Forwarding a message allows you to add comments or modify
    the message you are forwarding. These items are discussed in greater
    detail in the next section “Forwarding and Bouncing Mail.”

<https://mutt.org/doc/manual/#forwarding-mail>

    Bouncing and forwarding let you send an existing message to recipients
    that you specify. Bouncing a message sends a verbatim copy of a
    message to alternative addresses as if they were the message's
    original recipients specified in the Bcc header. Forwarding a
    message, on the other hand, allows you to modify the message before
    it is resent (for example, by adding your own comments). Bouncing is
    done using the <bounce> function and forwarding using the <forward>
    function bound to “b” and “f” respectively.

I agree that *normally*, *for most people*, the word "bounce" in the
context of email refers to an automatically generated error message
composed by an MTA and sent to the envelope sender address of a
message that could not be delivered.

I agree that it's very confusing that mutt also chose to use the word
"bounce" to mean "forward a message with its original headers intact".

Nevertheless, that's what they chose, and that's what we're explaining
to you.