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Re: Proper way to specify "Do Not Reply"?



On Fri, 09 Oct 1998 09:43:27 +0800, Dave Crocker said:
> "No reply desired" is essentially an annotation, or comment, to the
> recipient.  That is, it does not mean "prohibited".  It is guidance.

Exactly..

> I think a more "natural" way to achieve this is with a null mailbox, along
> the line of:
> 
> 	Reply-to:  No reply needed <>
> 
> but that 822 mandates doesn't permit this.
> 
> Might be worth changing the rules.

OK.. I smell an RFC draft here - is there a better way to address
this?  I can't think of one, and it has nice symmetry with the
RFC821 null return path in the envelopes..

> An entirely different approach is to note that CC: recipients are typically
> not intended to send replies, whereas To: recipients typically are.  Hence,
> using a fake To address and having the real recipients in the CC field
> achieves the stated, human intention, goal.

Yes, the only problem here is that what I was thinking was giving the
recipient MUA enough hints so that if the person hits the reply key,
the MUA can pop up a dialog saying "Are you *sure* you want to reply?
The sender didn't think a reply was a good idea...".  And as we've
seen on some high-traffic IETF lists, having yourself listed in the
cc: field is no bar to sending replies.. ;)

-- 
				Valdis Kletnieks
				Computer Systems Senior Engineer
				Virginia Tech

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