# Email headers need improvement

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067>\
**Category:** Chef Forums Feedback\
**Created:** [October 14, 2015, 8:33am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067 "2015-10-14T08:33:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 13\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tomhughes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/tomhughes/32/815_2.png) [@tomhughes](https://discourse.chef.io/u/tomhughes)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 8:33am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/1 "2015-10-14T08:33:39Z")

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Here is what my chef folder looks like right now in Thunderbird:

![](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/images/transparent.png)

So my first problem is all the tag spam at the front of the subject which means there is quite literally no useful information visible about the message subject. I know it's from "Chef Forums" thanks - that's why it is in my chef folder, and know what category it was posted in is far less important than knowing what it's actually about.

Secondly, given that there is space for a full name in the user preferences, it would be good if you used that as the "comment" in the From header rather than the username.

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**Author:** ![coderanger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/coderanger/32/5_2.png) [@coderanger](https://discourse.chef.io/u/coderanger)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 8:36am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/2 "2015-10-14T08:36:27Z")

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The subject line has been cleaned up already, and I’ve got a feature request in to the Discourse team for the From header ([https://meta.discourse.org/t/use-display-name-for-email-is-possible/34474/1](https://meta.discourse.org/t/use-display-name-for-email-is-possible/34474/1)). How does the subject line from this one look? Should be `[$listname] $topic` just like with the old mailing list.

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**Author:** ![tomhughes](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/tomhughes/32/815_2.png) [@tomhughes](https://discourse.chef.io/u/tomhughes)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 8:47am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/3 "2015-10-14T08:47:20Z")

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Well it's slightly better:

![](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/images/transparent.png)

I hadn't seen that change before I only just noticed that I stopped getting emails in the middle of the night when everybody was unsubscribed.

The `Re` is definitely a good addition, but merging the tags still leaves a pretty long prefix and not much space for the subject. I do have a filter in my exim that can remove those prefixes so I guess I need to update it 😉 At least you seem to have a different `List-ID` for each one, even if it does have spaces in it!

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**Author:** ![Laurent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ce7236/32.png) [@Laurent](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Laurent)\
**Post date:** [October 14, 2015, 9:46am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/4 "2015-10-14T09:46:50Z")

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Hi there,

Just been talking about it on IRC, the **In-Reply-To:** mail header is always set to the topic message-id.  
For the “Welcome to discourse” thread, the answers all have `In-Reply-To: <topic/7027@discourse.chef.io>`  
Discourse knows how to handles replies-to-replies and it would be nice if the mails could still be displayed in a tree in our old fashioned MUA.

The **In-Reply-To** and **References** headers should be set adequately imho.

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/codinghorror/32/1038_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://discourse.chef.io/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 7:23am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/5 "2015-10-20T07:23:41Z")

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**We at Discourse are very interested in improvements to our email support** , so let us know specifically what we can do as you get more mail from this site.

Note that every new user here defaults to “Mailing List Mode” per their user prefs, so they will get emailed for each new post.

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**Author:** ![Martin\_Eigenbrodt](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/martin_eigenbrodt/32/539_2.png) [@Martin\_Eigenbrodt](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Martin_Eigenbrodt)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 7:30am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/6 "2015-10-20T07:30:00Z")

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> October 20  
> We at Discourse are very interested in improvements to our email support, so let us know specifically what we can do as you get more mail from this site.
> 
> Note that every new user here defaults to "Mailing List Mode" per their user prefs, so they will get emailed for each new post.

It is not obvious how to disable this "mailing list mode".  
I already disabled everything I could find in my preferences. Still receiving the spam.

Regards,

Martin

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**Author:** ![coderanger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/coderanger/32/5_2.png) [@coderanger](https://discourse.chef.io/u/coderanger)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 7:33am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/7 "2015-10-20T07:33:51Z")

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I added a guide over on the Welcome/FAQ thread. [Welcome to the Chef mailing list!](https://discourse.chef.io/t/welcome-to-the-chef-mailing-list/7070)

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**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/codinghorror/32/1038_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://discourse.chef.io/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 7:37am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/8 "2015-10-20T07:37:41Z")

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> [@Martin\_Eigenbrodt](#):
>
> I already disabled everything I could find in my preferences. Still receiving the spam.

Simply untick everything in the Email section of your user preferences:

 ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/uploads/chef/original/2X/a/aecf099b5617d7d33ae41f85e61ba6254c2f8d8c.png)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![coderanger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/coderanger/32/5_2.png) [@coderanger](https://discourse.chef.io/u/coderanger)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 7:41am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/9 "2015-10-20T07:41:15Z")

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> [@codinghorror](#):
>
> Simply untick everything in the Email section of your user preferences:

Does that still send notifications for threads you are tracking because you posted in them?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/codinghorror/32/1038_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://discourse.chef.io/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 7:52am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/10 "2015-10-20T07:52:35Z")

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No, note the description of Tracked – same criteria, someone has to reply to you, mention your @name, quote you, etc.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![coderanger](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/coderanger/32/5_2.png) [@coderanger](https://discourse.chef.io/u/coderanger)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 8:00am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/11 "2015-10-20T08:00:14Z")

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Sure, but even with all settings unchecked that means you can still get emails if those conditions are met on existing tracked threads. We really need a one-click unsubscribe that actually clears _everything_ like it would on a mailing list.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![codinghorror](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/discourse.chef.io/codinghorror/32/1038_2.png) [@codinghorror](https://discourse.chef.io/u/codinghorror)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 8:00am UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/12 "2015-10-20T08:00:58Z")

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No – you can’t get any emails if you have everything unchecked there. It is not possible.

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**Author:** ![pmocek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/57b2e6/32.png) [@pmocek](https://discourse.chef.io/u/pmocek)\
**Post date:** [October 20, 2015, 6:11pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/email-headers-need-improvement/7067/13 "2015-10-20T18:11:45Z")

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> let us know specifically what we can do as you get more mail from this site

You can inform us which headers to match on in order to filter all mail  
from the Chef "list." Sieve and Procmail configuration snippets would  
be most appreciated.

> Informing people of what changes would be needed for their mail  
> filters would have been helpful.
> 
> In my Sieve rules, I already had these:
> 
> ```
> elsif header :matches "list-id" "<chef.lists.chef.io>" {
> fileinto "INBOX.l.chef";
> stop;
> } elsif header :matches "list-id" "<chef.lists.opscode.com>" {
> fileinto "INBOX.l.chef";
> stop;
> }
> 
> ```
> 
> I added this:
> 
> ```
> elsif header :matches "list-id" "<discourse.chef.io>" {
> fileinto "INBOX.l.chef";
> stop;
> }
> 
> ```
> 
> But then I found that some messages had a header field like this:
> 
> ```
> List-ID: <site feedback.discourse.chef.io>
> 
> ```

Nobody responded.

I would post a message about this to the list with a meaningful subject  
header, clear statement of my question up front, and thorough but  
concise supporting details following, but unfortunately, we no longer  
have a mailing list to which I could submit such a post.