No subject

Wed Apr 17 12:44:40 BST 2019

<tip category="KMail|Filters">
<html>
<p>...that you can get rid of the "[mailing list name]"
added to the subject of some mailing lists by using the <em>rewrite
header</em> filter action? Just use
<pre>rewrite header "Subject"
   replace "\s*\[mailing list name\]\s*"
   with ""</pre>
</p>
</html>
</tip>

This tip is egoistic - it might be good for the single user using KMail, but can upset all the other mailinglist users because it clutters up the subject :-(

Example:

Original Subject:    Re: [ML] Hi!
After rewriting:     Re: Hi!

So far, so good.

If you send a reply, it's still "Re: Hi!". Unfortunately, the list manager will prefix it with [ML] again, which results in this subject:
    [ML] Re: Hi!
(this is how all other list members will see it)

Now if someone without the subject filter replies (which is the majority of the list members), you will see a subject like:
    Re: [ML] Re: Hi!

Please note the duplicate "Re:" that is now in the subject.

After some more replies, the subject can even look more funny. Just imagine someone replaces "[a long list prefix]" with "[long-ML]" or something like that instead of removing it completely - it's only a question of time until you end up with something like
Re: [a long list prefix] Re: [long-ML] Re: [long-ML] Re: Hi!

I see two options for the tip:
- add a notice that the subject should *never* be changed 
  if one wants to reply to the mailinglist (because the
  subject will be cluttered up with crap)
- drop this tip completely