On Thu, 9 Aug 2001, Jacob Haller wrote:

>>Hello,
>>
>>This has to do with the fact that when a message goes through to a list the
>>original destination information is obliterated from the TO and CC lines.
>>As I explain if I send a message:
>>
>>TO: [log in to unmask]
>>cc: [log in to unmask]
>>
>>When the message comes through the LSoft list there is NO READILY VISIBLE
>>CLUE that the message was also sent to JOE.  The context of the message may
>>DEPEND on that information being visible.
>>
>>Most redistribution lists attempt to preserve the original TO/CC header
>>information as much as possible.  Listserv lists strip it out completely,
>>and replaces ALL of the original destination info with a simple:
>>
>>TO: [log in to unmask]
>
>This is incorrect.  Depending on the mailing list settings a
>Comments: or X-To line will contain the "missing" information.
>

Just to make it explicit, there is another mailing list setting that
suppresses the "missing" information altogether.  It's not the
default, and I've never been on a list configured that way, but
Listserv does allow a listowner to do it.

I remember when I was first subscribed to a LISTSERV list over BITNET,
the "X-To:" and "X-cc:" lines contained, in addition to the the
additional recpients, the address of the list itself as given by the
original sender.  While this was reasonably worthless if the list was
the only recipient of the message, I found it useful for context, when
a message was sent to 3 "To" addresses and 15 "cc"s, to know whether
the list was one of the "To:" or one of the "cc:" addresses.

Then the site switched from sending the messages over BITNET to
sending them over the Internet, the "X-To:" and "X-cc:" lines became
"Comment:" lines, and stopped including the address of the list
itself.  I did not consider this latter feature an improvement.  It
was years later, two weeks before the list in question ended up moving
to a non-Listserv site, that I discovered that IETFHDR would give me
what I wanted, at the bearable (for me) cost of losing the list
address as the standard "To:" address.

The "X-To:" and "X-cc:" headers of today include all of the original
addresses that a message was sent to except that of the list, so
unless you have IETFHDR set (which is only workable for some people)
you can't tell whether the list address was a "To:" or a "CC:".

I'm no longer on any lists where members send polemics to media and to
the powers-that-be, copying the list to let the other members know
what they are doing, so this is no longer a live issue for me, but my
feelings on it are still the same.

Dennis