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List:       kmail-devel
Subject:    Bug#47174: intelligent reply buttons (esp. for mailing lists)
From:       prefect () rtts ! org
Date:       2002-08-29 14:59:02
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Package: kmail
Version: KDE 3.0.7 CVS/CVSup/Snapshot
Severity: wishlist
Installed from:    Compiled sources
Compiler:          Not Specified
OS:                Not Specified
OS/Compiler notes: Not Specified

I'm referring to the article "Reply-to munging considered harmful":
http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html
I think this problem needs to be solved by better handling by email clients. I'm \
afraid this is rather long, but I want to make sure that what I want (and why I want \
it) is clear.

The author is right on the subject of technical issues. However, he is wrong about \
the Principle of Least Surprise. 

The point is, normal people use graphical email clients, and they couldn't care less \
about the technical implications of email. When they're looking at the Reply button, \
they read it as "Reply to this E-Mail", not as "Reply to the author of this E-Mail". \
If you think about it, there's a crucial difference there: The E-Mail came to them \
through a mailing list where open discussion takes place. Let me draw an analogy \
here: Consider a real-life meeting, which is also an open discussion. If somebody \
makes a statement in this meeting and you want to reply to this statement, do you \
reply openly or do you reply privately (by whispering to him)? I'm sure you expect to \
reply openly. That's why normal people expect to send a mail to the list and NOT the \
original author when they hit the Reply button. Reply-to munging is a kludge to "fix" \
this.

I hope you're with me this far.
What we really need are three different Reply buttons, with the following semantics:
1. Reply to this E-Mail
2. Reply to the original author
3. Reply to all recipients

2. and 3. should have the behaviour known right now. 1. should be a "clever" \
addition. It could figure out what to do by looking at Mailing-list headers in the \
mail.

Of course there's a danger of confusing the users: if they want to answer to a \
standard, private email, buttons 1. and 2. would do the same thing (bad design!). So \
maybe, depending on the e-mail, only a subset of those three buttons could be shown:

a) private, no Cc: only show button "Reply to this E-Mail" (default)
b) private with Ccs: show buttons "Reply to the author" (default), "Reply to all \
recipients" c) mailing-list: show buttons "Reply to this E-Mail" (default), "Reply to \
the original author" d) mailing-list with Ccs: show all three buttons (?), with \
"Reply to this E-Mail" being the default

This feature would end all those mailing list Reply-to setting wars once and for all.

(Submitted via bugs.kde.org)


(Complete bug history is available at http://bugs.kde.org/db/47/47174.html)
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