Possible Features Related to Creating a Response

This area is for listing all the possible features that an email client might have that are specifically related to creating a response. (For features related to the composition of a message after it has been initially created, see the Possible Message Composition Features page.)

Creating the response

• Incorporate more than one message into a reply/forward, combining/merging headers as appropriate
• Reply to message(s), with To, Cc, Bcc filled in based upon reply action:
  • Reply-to-sender (use Sender if present, otherwise From)
  • Reply-to-all (use Reply-* headers if Reply-To is present, otherwise send to From address with other addresses in Cc)
  • Reply-to-list (use List-* headers if present, otherwise ask list manager; optionally set Cc to the sender)
  • Reply-to-selected (use address(es) already highlighted/selected in source message(s))
  • Reply-by-selection (pop up a dialog with all the addresses in the headers and allow the user to choose among To/Cc/Bcc/none radio buttons for each one; buttons are initialized to the client's best guess, so the user only has to change where the client got it wrong)
  • Reply-to-own-message
    • TO/CC lines have the original message's TO/CC lines
    • FROM is the person who pressed the "Reply" button
    • body is quoted, and prepends "RE" to the subject line
  • Reply-filled-in-by-script script (for unique requirements, e.g., military where messages to a staff puke must be TO the line officer and CC them)
  • Other possibilities surely exist...
• A generic "Reply" that choses the appropriate Reply-* action (as determined by filter rules?); this is the action that is bound to the "Reply" button/keystroke
• Eliminate own address from Cc list (perhaps this should be an option?)
• Forward message(s) with or without attachments
• Redirect message(s) (See note below)
  • DuckySherwood suggests these semantics:
    • TO/CC are blank
    • FROM is the message's original sender (with a note that it's been redirected), NOT from the person who hit the "Redirect" button
    • body is quoted
  • Greg notes that apparently only Eudora has those semantics, and most (all?) other clients simply pop up a requestor for the new addressees and then immediately send a message:
    • all headers except RECEIVED (including FROM/TO/CC/SUBJECT/DATE) copied unchanged from the original message
    • RECEIVED headers changed to X-RECEIVED
    • body is not quoted (but no chance is given to edit it)
    • RESENT-FROM is set to the person who hit the "Redirect" button
    • RESENT-TO/RESENT-CC/RESENT-BCC are set from the pop-up
    • RESENT-DATE is set to the date the message was redirected
    • RESENT-MESSAGE-ID is set to a new message ID
• Resend message
  • TO/CC are the same as the original message's recipients
  • FROM is the person who hit the "Resend" button
  • body is not quoted
• Reply/forward with template text in response/forwarded message
• Bounce message(s) to sender (as in the Mail.app option: send a reply that looks like the name got a SMTP 550 "user unknown" hard error)
• Reply via instant messaging

Quoting

• Optionally include or quote original message(s) in response
• Quoted message(s) are:
  • Included in entirety with minimal quotation marks (as per Outlook's default quoting style)
  • Marked with leading ">" marks
  • Marked with leading "XXX>" mark, where XXX are initials of the writer
  • Marked with a user-setable prefix (permitted by some agents, but can lead to chaos)
  • Rewrappable (i.e. supporting format-flowed)
• Auto-citing (e.g. "On 29 Feb, 2038, Mabel Garcia said:")
• Customization of auto-citation line
• Optionally strip off signatures when forwarding/replying

Formatting

• Auto-format reply (HTML/RTF/text) in same format as received message(s) or selectable via filters (e.g., always reply to the mailing list in text even if someone sends a message in HTML)
• Selection of template/stylesheet/signature/whatever via filters

Other

• Responses inherit some attributes (list TBD) from original message (so that responses will be "filed" with the original message)
• Persona (particularly the return address) set automatically based on which account the original message came through (or possibly set via filter rules, with the default being to chose the account of the original message?)
• If subject line (and body?) is changed, ask the user if this is a new message instead of a reply (or just silently strip the In-Reply-To: header?).

-- DuckySherwood - 04 Mar 2003

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Greg Noel was the one who went berserk with the more esoteric Reply-* actions; blame him for them. He's also responsible for the generic Reply action so that the user normally gets the expected type of reply.

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Note about "redirect message" feature: This is unlikely to be implemented, since MitchKapor and DuckySherwood think it is a dangerous feature. E.g., Chris sends a message to Pat, Pat adds a comment and redirects it to Jean, Jean does a simple reply meaning to respond to Pat's comment but the message goes to Chris. Chris sees something that was meant for Pat.

Greg Noel agrees that it is a dangerous feature, but thinks that it still should be implemented (however, the option should be so well hidden that it would be too hard to use).

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Added stripping of In-Reply-To header when subject is changed (which was actually suggested by Florin Iucha).

-- DuckySherwood OSAF - 25 Mar 2003