Re: [pgsql-www] Forums at postgresql.com.au

On 21 Nov 2010, at 24:17, Trevor Talbot wrote:

>> I can't explain it any clearer, your email response goes to the mailing list and that mailing list sends a copy to the original person thats how a mailing list works. It also sends a copy to the forum which is parses you and that person and anyone else can see the reply on the forum.
>
> Elliot, Magnus wants forum->list email to come from a per-user address
> so that when he replies directly to that address (without sending it
> to the list), the response is mapped to a PM.

Actually, I think that's only your approach to a possible solution to achieve what he wants?

I'm not one of the people who've been communicating off-list about this with him, so I may be wrong, but to my understanding what Magnus wants (the requirement, not a solution to it) is this:

- Person A is on the forums and sends a message that ends up on the ML (and on the forums, naturally).
- Someone on the ML, Person B, sends him a _private_ reply, not intended to end up in either the ML or the forums.
- The message goes to the forum software and is passed on to Person A, and does _not_ end up on the forums or the ML.

I do see a difficulty here; if the forum software is only subscribed with one e-mail address, how is it going to distinguish between a reply-all and a private reply?
Maybe it would help to subscribe it using two or three addresses, so that you can see if both (or at least two out of three) addresses got the reply, or only one?

I'm pretty sure the end result that Magnus (and me, and probably many more on this ML) intends is a forum layer that is _transparent_ to the list.
We're not going to change our habits because there's suddenly a forum connected to our ML, you need to be able to and willing to deal with that or you're not up to this project.

Personally I'm not particularly pleased with your choice of PhpBB, it's got a few dark areas in its history - they seem more concerned with skins than with security (Plus, it's written in PHP, which is a mess), so forgive me for being a bit skeptic.

Solving the issue is a different matter. Giving every forum poster their own e-mail address is a possible solution. I think that subscribing the forum with a few e-mail addresses is another, and that will also give you redundancy in case one of those addresses encounters a problem.

Alban Hertroys

--
If you can't see the forest for the trees,
cut the trees and you'll see there is no forest.

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