[Leica] partially OT: a concrete example of Microsoft badness

[Brian Reid <reid@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>]

Blind carbon copy.

Note: this message is entirely about email and not about cameras or list manners. 

Anybody who has been on the LUG longer than a year or so has heard me complain about the headaches that Microsoft email software causes list owners. All of this argument with and about Anthony A has caused people to forward messages around, which I can quote here to show you what I am talking about.

Here is a recent message sent by Anthony, as displayed by Microsoft email software:

From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Mxsmanic
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 2:48 AM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] OT: new C**** lens for improved Bokeh

Here is the same message, as displayed by standards-compliant email software:

From: Mxsmanic <mxsmanic@hotmail.com>
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: Re: [Leica] OT: new C**** lens for improved Bokeh
Date-Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2001 2:48 AM +0200

There are a few minor differences (MS doesn't show the timezone of the date; different keyword name for the date).

But there is one major showstopper difference. The Microsoft email progam shows the wrong From information. Here is the text of the Internet email standard that applies here (RFC822, section 4.4.4):

 	    o   The "Sender" field mailbox should be sent  notices  of
                any  problems in transport or delivery of the original
                messages.  If there is no  "Sender"  field,  then  the
                "From" field mailbox should be used.

 -->        o   The  "Sender"  field  mailbox  should  NEVER  be  used
                automatically, in a recipient's reply message.

            o   If the "Reply-To" field exists, then the reply  should
                go to the addresses indicated in that field and not to
                the address(es) indicated in the "From" field.

            o   If there is a "From" field, but no  "Reply-To"  field,
                the  reply should be sent to the address(es) indicated
                in the "From" field.

The standard requires that replies never go to the "Sender" field, but that is the only field that Microsoft email software displays. It does not even give you enough information to do the right thing by hand. 

The reason that I care even though I don't use this software, is that people who use Microsoft email software have more difficulty being good citizens on an email list.  When people who are not Email experts use Microsoft email programs, they don't have enough information to be able to send off-list messages to people, so either they send on-list messages or they ask me for the person's email address. It also generates a steady stream of message sent to the list maintenance mailbox (owner-leica-users) that people think is going to somebody else. 

I guess if you're rich enough, like Microsoft, you can ignore the rules and do what you want, but this particular flouting of the rules makes the world a worse place.