Vickie Banks asked:
 
> We've been having a discussion about From: lines on moderated
> lists.  When I forward on EDTECH messages, the moderator's
> address appears in an Approved-by: line, the list address in
> the Sent: and Reply-to: lines, and the original poster's
> address in the From: line.
. . .
> Does anyone have a simple guide for what conditions will
> generate what sort of From: lines -- and any settings that
> can help get them the way we want them?
 
And Doug Winship replied:
 
> I use Pine most of the time, but can't use it for forwarding to
> the list mail I get as editor as my address will go in the From:
> field. So I switch to Elm and use the "bounce" feature.  Unless
> they study the full header the subscribers never know it came
> through me.
 
Doug gave a fairly complete answer; I have just a bit of
explanation to add.  With Elm and many other mail programs there
are two different ways to send a message you have received to
someone else: (1) forwarding and (2) resending.
 
When a message is *forwarded*, the mail system creates an
entirely new email message (with your address in the From: line)
and puts the original message (usually with the original headers)
in the text of the message.  When the list server gets a
forwarded message, all it sees is the From: line from the
moderator.  The From: line of the original sender is not anywhere
in the header, so the list server cannot find it.
 
When a message is *resent*, the original header is used.  The
mail system just adds a "Resent-from" line to the header.  When
the list server gets this, it finds the original sender's From:
line.
 
Your moderators need to find a mailer that supports resending.
As Doug mentioned, Elm supports resending--the command named
"bounce" does it.  I have good news for Doug: the latest version
of Pine also supports resending.
 
On VMS systems, PMDF Mail supports resending, but VMSmail does
not.
 
If you can't find a system that supports resending, your
moderators can copy the from: line into the text of each message
they send to the list server.  With the volume of EDTECH, this is
not an attractive alternative.
 
I run a list with a team of moderators.  Our solution to this is
to have everyone telnet to one account that has Elm.
 
Good Luck.
 
                          Peace,  Dan
 
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