[Gimp-user] Replying to the lists (was: Re: Can this gay flag gradient be added to releases of gimp?)

[Michael Schumacher <schumaml gmx de>]

On 06/27/2015 05:12 PM, Dora Smith wrote:

> This list is set up so you have to reply all to reply to the list,
> and that is so unusual I fail to do it half of the time.

The lists do not change the Reply-To header. This is because some people
consider this to be harmful: http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html

There is an opposing site, of course - their original article is no
longer online, but someone has created an overview with a local copy of
the opposing articles at at
http://marc.merlins.org/netrants/listreplyto.html


That aside, there are ways to handle this:


Reply All

As you have mentioned, there is Reply All in some mail clients.

However, some people do not want to get copies of relies per private
mail, so a good practice is to remove anything but the list address from
the resulting mail before sending, unless you want the original author
to get a copy of the mail (for example if you know that they are not
subscribed to the mailing list).


List-Reply

The best possible way is to use a mail client that can identify and
handle mailing lists and make replying to list mail easy.

Some mail clients, like mutt, can be told what mail addresses are
mailing lists, and if properly configured, if offers list replies:
http://www.mutt.org/doc/manual/manual-3.html#lists


Other mail clients make use of the mailing list mail headers filed as
defined in RFC 2369, and user the information contained there to offer a
list reply.

For example, any message sent via the gimp-user mailing list will
contain the following mail headers:


List-Id: GIMP User List <gimp-user-list.gnome.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/options/gimp-user-list>,
        <mailto:gimp-user-list-request gnome org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-user-list/>
List-Post: <mailto:gimp-user-list gnome org>
List-Help: <mailto:gimp-user-list-request gnome org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gimp-user-list>,
        <mailto:gimp-user-list-request gnome org?subject=subscribe>


One mail client that offers list reply to the List-Post address is
Mozilla Thunderbird, via the Smart Reply button.


P.S. the List-Id header is a great way to filter for list message, e.g.
to have them in their own folder.


-- 
Regards,
Michael
GPG: 96A8 B38A 728A 577D 724D 60E5 F855 53EC B36D 4CDD