On Tue, Oct 24, 2000 at 09:19:20AM -0400, James M Galvin wrote:
> I don't recall seeing this topic discussed here and I'm very interested
> in what folks think about this issue.
>
> Memail.com has just begun switching their elists from having the address
> of the elist in the message TO header to having the subscribed address
> in the message TO header. Personally, I'm disappointed because I think
> only personal email should have my address in the message TO header
In general, I think altering any of the original headers in a
message is bad and should be avoided whenever possible. (which
is pretty much always, in my experience.)
Modifying the Subject or Reply-To is bad enough, but doing it to
other headers like To:, From:, or Message-Id: is an extremely bad
idea, IMO.
> I know all the reasons why elist managers themselves like this, notably
> because they get better error messages when email fails and also because
> it helps remind the subscriber how they got started.
I think VERPs are the way to go to track bounces, and List-*
headers can help with everything else (that is, envisioning a
future a few years from now where these headers are generated by
default by MLMs and taken advantage of by MUAs.)
> But why I really
> dislike it is because it screws up vacation/out-of-office announcement
> programs, which are not supposed to reply unless the recipient appears
> in the message headers.
Lists should issue Precedence: and List-* headers, and
autoresponders should not reply to incoming mail with those
headers, no matter who the apparent recipient is.
> For me personally it also screws up my email filtering, because the
> first distinction I make is to test whether a message is personal email,
> i.e., addressed directly to me. Elists are just not personal email.
I suggest making that the last distinction: filter mail from
known lists first (preferably using the List-Id header), then
filter mail that's addressed to you to your inbox, then filter
anything else to a low priority mailbox, because it's probably
spam.
> Now I know its Lyris and Link Communications behind what MeMail.Com is
> doing. I don't really fault Lyris, per se, since I understand the view
> of doing what the client wants. I also know they don't need it since
> they do everything else an elist technology can do in the space of
> managing failed mail. But I also know there are no real "rules" in this
> space so I decided to get some opinions.
>
> Hence my question. Do you think it is appropriate for elists to address
> their messages as if they were personal email?
No, that's not appropriate at all, at least not for discussion lists.
(announcement lists are much different, and I don't see anything wrong
with doing it for those kinds of lists.)
--
Gerald Oskoboiny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
http://impressive.net/people/gerald/
