Klarinet Archive - Posting 000105.txt from 1996/02

From: Mitch Bassman <mbassman@-----.COM>
Subj: Explanation: Re: mail problems
Date: Mon, 5 Feb 1996 14:49:32 -0500

Warning: technical issue.

There has been some traffic on the list recently from members whose
replies are going to the sender instead of the entire list. For example,

On Mon, 5 Feb 1996, LAB RAT OF THE GODS wrote:
> I've noticed this problem too. There are a couple of people
> on the list such as Dan that when there posts pop on the screen it acts
> like it was sent from himself insted of listserv sending it. Most
> systems see his address on the (from) part and reply to his address
> and not to klarinet@-----.

Well, I think I know. Keep in mind that when you send a message to the
entire mailing list, you don't actually send a message to the entire
mailing list [sic]. You actually send the message (coded for distribution
to the KLARINET list) to the LISTSERV program, which then forwards a copy
of the message to everyone on the list.

Evidently (by observation), the LISTSERV software at vccscent.bitnet is
configured to insert the "address" of the original sender into the "From:"
field of the redistributed message and the "address" of the list (i.e.,
KLARINET@-----.BITNET [or a non-bitnet variant]) into the "Reply to:"
field. If you examine the header of *this* message, that's what most of
you (whose service providers don't strip out the headers) will see. When
the recipient of an incoming message REPLIES to the message, most e-mail
systems will send the reply to the address in the "From:" field by default
*unless* there is an address in the "Reply to:" field; in that case, the
"Reply to:" address has precedence. (When my mailer detects an address in
the "Reply to:" field, it gives me the choice of which to use for the
reply. It also asks if I want to send copies of the reply to everyone who
received the incoming message -- which would include the ("From:") sender
as well as the ("Reply to:") entire mailing list.)

The anomaly occurs when a member of the list has specifically set a value
in the "Reply to:" field of his or her e-mail system. That value
*overrides* the value that LISTSERV is programmed to insert. I noticed
the effect a couple of months ago when I had set an explicit "Reply to:"
value on my mailer, so that my correspondents would see the short form of
my address (compare what you see in the header with what you see in my
signature). I deleted my "Reply to:" entry when I noticed the impact it
had on this and other mailing lists.

As "LAB RAT OF THE GODS" has observed, Dan Leeson is one of the list
members who has set his own preference in the "Reply to:" field. The
effect is to override the list address and to cause a REPLY to go to the
sender rather to the entire list. Possible solutions:

(1) Ask all list members not to set their own "Reply to:" values. This is
probably not practical. Some installations may require it.

(2) Ask the list owner (Jim, are you listening?) to reconfigure the
LISTSERV software at vccscent.bitnet not to permit users to override the
"Reply to:" field on messages to a mailing list. I don't actually know
any details of the LISTSERV innards, so this may not be technically
feasible.

(3) Ask the members of the list to be sufficiently e-mail-literate to
notice where their replies are going. For example, I put the address of
the KLARINET mailing list in my mailer's address book. If I see that the
sender's address has been generated in the "To:" field of a reply, I
simply delete it, type "klarinet" in the "To:" field, and my mailer fills
in the address. This alternative is probably not a fool-proof solution
because it is not reasonable to expect every (current and future) member
of any mailing list to be computer-literate.

I use option (3) which is really quite simple, but option (2) is really
the best of my three alternatives for a long-term solution that requires
no action on the part of the masses. Perhaps someone else can provide a
better alternative in case the LISTSERV software doesn't support option
(2). Meanwhile, just make sure that the KLARINET address appears in the
"To:" field if your intent is to send the message to the entire list. If
your intent is to send your message somewhere else, put some other address
there.

--Mitch Bassman
mbassman@-----.com