Re: Mailing list musings (was: RSVP...)

From: Tony Harminc (tzha0@juts.ccc.amdahl.com)
Date: Fri Jul 18 1997 - 13:34:59 EDT


On 17 Jul 97 at 16:37, Pete Resnick wrote:

> Let's hear it for that Reply-To line. :-( Obviously these should have gone
> to the sender and *not* to the list. But the list is trying to be helpful.
> Silly list. Getting rid of the From field pointing to the list is great.
> Leaving the Reply-To pointing to the list is unnecessary; I can use the
> Reply-All command if I want to talk to the list.
>
> I've also noticed that the mailing list likes to eat some header fields
> (like some custom header fields I put on my own mail so that I recognize
> where I sent them from when I get a copy back from a mailing list), but
> also likes to reinvent some of its own, like Message-ID and Date. It would
> be nice if these header fields would be passed through from the original
> without being changed. Especially Message-ID makes duplicate suppression a
> real pain, and it's nice to get the original date so that you can see when
> the person actually created the message, and in which time zone.
>
> Please continue making positive changes like the From fix.

I agree with all this. What I'm wondering, in light of all the
problems we've had with the list server, is why the list doesn't use
an ordinary, commercial product. Real Listserv is available very
cheaply for low volume lists like this, and runs on all sorts of UNIX
boxes, NT, and so on, as well as VMS and VM. I don't want to sound
unappreciative of all the effort that goes into keeping things
running, but it seems to me that the effort might better go into
other things.

(I have no connection at all with the vendor of Listserv other than
as a happy user of lists run using the software.)

Tony Harminc



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