Is there a dedicated mail client for list messages ?

[Polytropon]

On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 16:45:36 +0100, Ralf Mardorf via freebsd-questions wrote:
> On Thu, 12 Jan 2017 16:17:07 +0100, Polytropon wrote:
> >On a message, use the mailer's reply function "Reply to all" or "Reply
> >to mailing list".
> >
> >Again, allow me to recommend Sylpheed.
> 
> Sylpheed, as well as Claws-Mail invoke mailing list replies by "Reply"
> and not by "Reply All". This does cause a different reply behaviour,
> depending on an overwritten or not overwritten "Reply-To" header by the
> mailman settings chosen by the list owner and it depends on the fact
> that a subscriber does use a "Reply-To" header or not.

That is correct. Actually Sylpheed has four "reply modes",
if my observation is correct:

Reply		-> reply to Reply-To: address, or to From: address if
		   no Reply-To: address is specified

Reply to sender	-> reply to From: address explicitely

Reply to list	-> reply to Cc: address(es), usually the list

Reply to all	-> reply both to Reply-To: (or From:) _and_ Cc:
		   address(es)

On this mailing list, I've read the suggestion several times
that "reply all" is preferred, so that users who write a
question to the list without being subscribed to the list
can receive answers directly, and still the list will get
the reply for the subscribers.



> The advantage is, if a subscriber, e.g. on an open list like FreeBSD
> does use the "Reply-To" header and it's not overwritten with the mailing
> list address (FreeBSD question's doesn't, but other mailman lists
> sometimes do), then all replies to mailing list are CC'ed to the
> original author, who not necessarily is subscribed.
> 
> The disadvantage is, that I actually needed to remove Polytropon
> <freebsd at edvax.de> from the CC address bar.

That is correct so far. :-)



> Assuming Polytropon should protect himself against duplicated mails, by
> using the mailman subscriber setting for this purpose, he unfortunately
> would receive original mails without a mailing list header, since
> mailman just doesn't path through duplicates. IOW in this case a reply
> to a mailing list wouldn't work for him at all, he would need to add the
> mailing list address manually.

I think that's what the "reply to list" function is intended for.
Personally, I have no problem with (sometimes) receiving replies
two times, I just continue using the mailing list message so
the message IDs and thread information is kept.



> Actually there is no MUA able to handle all mailing list reply
> possibilities automatically, if the users of a mailing list don't
> understand the mailing list settings made by the list owner and the
> behaviour of different MUAs.

Yes, there are several such aspects that depend on mailing list
user preference ("we prefer 'reply to all'" or "only reply to
the list"), and mailing list system configuration (dealing with
sender information, From: and Reply-To: headers). It is not
possible to automatically find out which aspects apply to a
certain mailing list.


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...