[ntp:questions] forwarding

Brad Knowles brad at stop.mail-abuse.org
Sat Mar 12 23:30:02 UTC 2005


At 10:01 PM +0000 2005-03-12, Hans Jørgen Jakobsen wrote:

>  On my reader (slrn) the gateway'd articles seem to
>  1) break threading

	This is the Message-id: issue.  This is not going to change.  See 
<http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/faqw-mm.py?req=show&file=faq04.059.htp>.

	There are good reasons why Mailman works this way, and until we 
can guarantee that all other mail-to-news gateway solutions have been 
fixed so that they work in a correct manner (and all other clients 
which are capable of posting newsgroup messages as well as sending 
messages via e-mail), there is nothing we can do.


	We must act in the most defensive manner possible, lest we run 
the serious risk of causing (or at least participating in the 
creation of) much more severe problems.  The alternative is 
potentially catastrophic.

>  2) modify Subject header. ie insert "[ntp:questions]", sometimes in
>  several levels

	The gateway does not do this.  I've checked the gateway source 
code, and when configured to do so, it goes out of it's way to avoid 
adding the subject prefix to messages being posted to the newsgroup. 
This is done by default, and the gateway we run is configured this 
way.

	However, what does not happen in Mailman 2.1.5 is the *removal* 
of all previous examples of the prefix which may have been put in the 
subject line by MUAs.  One solution to this problem will be 
incorporated into Mailman 2.1.6, which I am planning on installing as 
soon as it is officially released.

	This is not our fault.  This is a problem caused by MUAs.  But we 
will take additional steps to protect against it.

>  As far as I remember it has been a problem since day one.

	The first issue will never be resolved.  The alternative is just 
too dangerous.

	The second issue should be resolved as soon as Mailman 2.1.6 is 
released and we can get it installed.  The third beta of 2.1.6 was 
released a while back, but I have not felt comfortable installing it, 
preferring to wait for the official release version.

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.



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