[Tfug] Correctly replying to messages in digest mode

[Claude Rubinson]

On Fri, Oct 05, 2007 at 10:43:51AM -0500, Robert Hunter wrote:
> On 10/5/07, Claude Rubinson <rubinson at u.arizona.edu> wrote:
> > But if you're receiving the digest version of the list, it's going to
> > have a different Message-ID than the original, individual message.
> > Therefore, even if you have a proper mailer, threading won't work.  I
> > believe that the only solution would be to subscribe to receive
> > messages individually.
> >
> > Perhaps a acceptable solution would be subscribe to the individual
> > messages but route all TFUG messages into a separate mailbox (via,
> > e.g., procmail)?
> 
> Each message in the digest is labeled with the original Message-Id.

Ahh, didn't realize that (obviously).  

> I don't know if any MUAs allow you to reply to specific message
> contained in a digest, but if your MUA allows you to manually edit
> the headers, then you can achieve this.  I've considered writing a
> mutt extension to do this, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone
> already has. :-)

Now I'm curious as to possible solutions and wondering how easy it
would be to write such an extension.  Could you bounce me a copy of
the latest digest so that I could play with it when (if) I get some
time?

> > Perhaps a acceptable solution would be subscribe to the individual
> > messages but route all TFUG messages into a separate mailbox (via,
> > e.g., procmail)?
> 
> Aye, that's a good compromise; but there are possibly other reasons for
> wanting to receive digest format.

For instance?  (Not being snarky, truly wondering.)  I can understand
why one might only wish to receive a handful of emails from TFUG per
day, rather than every single one.  It's not clear to me whether
there's any advantage client-side to having a single digest rather
than multiple individual messages.  Particularly if you have a decent
client-side mailer (that is, not talking about webmail but, e.g.,
Mutt).

It sounds like it would be pretty simple to write a local delivery
script (procmail, maildrop, etc) that would take the digest and split
it into its constituent messages.  Then you could run other mail
filtering scripts on it (kill files, etc) and route it to the
appropriate mailboxes.

Still, an extension that permits you to reply to an individual message
within a digest does sound pretty useful.  Also makes me think that I
could use an extension that when replying and quoting the original
message, would move the cursor to the section that I was reading when
I hit reply.  Would be really useful when replying to long emails (and
digests).


Claude