[ On Monday, June 2, 2003 at 21:10:24 (+0200), Michael Jakscht wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [Exim] Possibility of rewriting the subject...
>
> But another company changed from Novell Groupwise Mail-Server to
> Tobit David and now some pupils there want to transfer their old
> mails from Groupwise to David.
> Of course, the David MUA or whatever this stuff is called (never
> used nor saw any of such stuff... ;-) ) correctly inserts the "FW:
> <$original_subject>" to the original subject.
Whether this behaviour is "correct" or not depends on whether or not it
is what the user desires -- i.e. whether it is simply an automation of
what the user would want to do anyway.
> But those pupils don't like these inserted statements like "FW: " or
> so...
I'd say that's just tough for them.
It's not wise to try to fix user-level problems by munging messages at
the transport layer. You'll likely only create much deeper problems
rather than solving anything.
It's much better to either "fix" the users, or maybe fix the software
they're using.
> Okay, this might be true, but my personal view is that this
> rewriting is god or even better than good, just because of the
> simple reason that if you're subscribed to more than one mailinglist
> and MUST use a really *shitty* MUA like Notes (if can call this
> bullsh** a MUA) which can only sort messages based on subject
> content, the rewriting of these mailinglist-subject to me seems more
> than useful.
> Maybe you feel this is okay in this circumstance ;-)
Nope, definitely not. This is again a user-level problem that must not
be made worse by inappropriate mucking about at the transport layer.
I subscribe to dozens of mailing lists, very few of which do this stupid
subject-line munging. I use very simple software tools which help me
manage my e-mail. They do so by using the vast profusion of information
already present in the headers to identify the source of the messages
and sort them appropriately for me. Every mail reader worth using can
do this kind of thing without having to rely on any submitter supplied
information such as the body of the message or the subject header.
People who use inappropriate software tools for the job they're trying
to do must suffer from the results they deserve, just as any carpenter
who tries to drive in a wood screw using a hammer must deal with the
problems he deserves. Use the right tool for the job. If "Notes" isn't
a good MUA then don't use Notes for reading e-mail!
--
Greg A. Woods
+1 416 218-0098; <g.a.woods@???>; <woods@???>
Planix, Inc. <woods@???>; VE3TCP; Secrets of the Weird <woods@???>
