Re: Directory / folder help please

* On 2006.04.01, in <20060401140237.GQ22131 <at> tunican.local>,
*	"Kyle Wheeler" <kyle-mutt <at> memoryhole.net> wrote:
> >>
> >>Additionally, this is not a header that YOU should set. This is a 
> >>header used by mailing lists.
> >
> >What? No. Can you give any reference?
> 
> http://cr.yp.to/immhf/response.html
> ...
> What it boils down to is that at worst “Reply-To” is an unreliable 
> header (because many mailing lists mangle it), and at best it’s a 
> duplicate header (because this information should already be in the 
> “From” header). For mailing lists, use mutt’s support for 

The point of Reply-To: is that some people prefer to think of From: as
"this address originated the message", rather than as "I would like
to receive replies at this address," D.J.Bernstein's dubious authority
notwithstanding.  cr.yp.to documents his opinions and recommendations,
but not a standard.  Reply-To: is advisory; it says "I prefer responses
here."  Any From: address should be capable of receiving (otherwise it's
not meaningful as an address, since addresses are by definition places
you can send to), but it's not necessarily the case that it's the most
desirable reply address.

If a MLM sets Reply-To: on your sent message, your responses are
affected whether or not you set Reply-To: yourself.  The edge case where
this has any bearing at all is when the recipient of a message via a
list which has altered Reply-To: elects to ignore the list's Reply-To:
and reply directly to the sender.  It's not compelling to me that this
edge case should invalidate a long-standing definition of the Reply-To:
header, when the (admittedly less ambiguous) alternatives such as MFT
and MRT are not necessarily dependable.

As a pragmatic matter it's generally best not to use Reply-To.  There
are occasions when it's appropriate, though, and nothing in any standard
is stated or implied about precisely who "should" set it (822/2822
define it as an "originator field", but both the author and the MLM are,
in some sense, originators).  It's certainly not a header *intended* for
mailing lists, even if they perhaps legitimately choose to use it.

--

-- 
 -D.    dgc <at> uchicago.edu        NSIT    University of Chicago