Errors-to: owner-drums@CS.UTK.EDU
Message-Id: <199508161417.KAA22449@info.cren.net>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 1995 10:20:18 +0100
To: Eric Allman <eric@CS.Berkeley.EDU>
From: conklin@info.cren.net (Jim Conklin)
Subject: Re: "Reply-To" (and lists)
Cc: ietf-drums <drums@CS.UTK.EDU>

At  8:14 PM 8/15/95 -0700, Eric Allman wrote:
>Yes, that's a good point -- but it still uses the semantic where
>Reply-To: is a request that the value replace all reply addresses,
>not just that from the From: line.
>
>eric

  I'd be really delighted to see a replacement specified and (eventually)
adopted for this purpose, although, as Keith suggests, it would not be an
easy process and I think it would be slow to take hold.
  I must confess that I've not thought my way through how I think this
could be done, but I think the list use (or misuse, if you're of that
persuasion) of Reply-To will continue until an alternative is provided,
because there is a large class of people for whom it's convenient and
acceptable to direct replies to list mail back to the list, and that
segment of the user community will demand a facility for doing that.
  We've made the decision with ListProcessor to support both types or
behaviour with respect to replies, making the "reflector" behavior our
default in the hope of moving a bit in that direction, but a good mechanism
to facilitate this automatic direction of replies to the list (plus others
who should be included and without appearing to speak for the message
originator) would be very desirable from my perspective.

Jim