There are far more differences between lists than
the way they implement the "Reply-To:" header
(it can't be THAT important - IE4 mailer doesn't
even have a way to set it, although IE3 did -
dumbing down is progress!).
Since the good old days when listserv and
majordomo strutted the stage without opposition,
other MLMs have appeared and chaos has emerged:
Some lists take subscription addresses from the
envelope, some from "From:"; some lists take names
on subscription, most don't; some lists take commands
on user, some on subject and some on body (and some
on subject and body); some take multiple commands,
some don't; some get confused by signatures, some
don't; some do nothing on subscription, some confirm,
some need a reply in 48 hours, some pass a token that
you must remember when you unsubscribe; some
preserve case, some don't; some accept abbreviated
and alternative commands; some don't; some add "how
to unsubscribe" footers, some don't; some refer you to
a web page some don't; some can emulate other MLMs,
some are aloof; some provide a "list-request" address,
(and of these some are human addresses, some are robots),
some don't provide this standard address; some allow
administrators to morph them into arbitrary shapes by
configuration options, some are inflexible.
Some are obviously lists, with their X-Loop, Precedence
and other non standard headers, while some ("zines"
usually) look just like an email from a friend (header wise).
Nearly every combination of {List address, List admin address,
Personal address} can be found in each of the headers
{"Return-Path:", "Sender:", "From:", "Reply-To:", "Errors-To:"}.
Is it any wonder that users have trouble unsubscribing?
BUT THE SOLUTION IS AT HAND...
Example - unsubscribing (ie signing off, ie leaving):
to quote some examples from RFC 2369 (the path to Unity)..
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Unsubscribe: (Use this command to get off the list)
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=unsubscribe%20list>
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
If every list used something like one of these examples, all
the various permutations of list behaviours could be tolerated.
Users could get off lists and eventually mail clients would
be able to do it for them.
Same goes for List-Help, List-Subscribe, List-Post, List-Owner,
List-Archive and (from an IETF draft) List-Id headers.
OK, here are the questions I must ask:
- does LISTSERV have any plans of supporting RFC 2369?
- does Majordomo have any plans of supporting RFC 2369?
- Why would any owner of a list (eg Lyris) which DOES support this
RFC 2369 ever opt to not include the "List-Unsubscribe:" header?
- Where is the dictator who will force everybody to follow this
RFC 2369 for their own good?
