1752741 - When replying newsgroups posts a warning pops up when reply-to seems to be a "no reply"

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: Message Compose Window, defect)

Description

[Arno Welzel]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/96.0.4664.175 Safari/537.36

Steps to reproduce:

Open a usenet post which contains a "Reply-To:" header with an e-mail address which is considered a "noreply" address.

Try a post a reply in the newsgroup (not e-email!).

Actual results:

Thunderdbird shows a popup with a warning that messages to the e-mail-address will likely never be read.

Expected results:

No warning popup about the e-mail address when creating a reply as post and not an e-mail.

Comment 1

[Rachel Martin]

https://github.com/Betterbird/thunderbird-patches/blob/main/91/bugs/1342809-follow-up-newgroup.patch

Comment 2

[Christian Riechers]

Problem is reproducible with post <sseenl$155k$[e-mail]> in de.comm.software.mozilla.browser.

Comment 3

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

What is the Subject of that newsgroup post, and we are using the Followup button in the message header, or Message > Followup to Newsgroup (Ctrl+R) menu item from the menu bar or button?

Comment 4

[Arno Welzel]

Yes, I use Ctrl+R (or "Followup" button) - as I said in the bug report: Try a post a reply in the newsgroup (not e-email!).

Please see https://github.com/Betterbird/thunderbird-patches/blob/main/91/bugs/1342809-follow-up-newgroup.patch - there is already a fix for this in Betterbird. It just has to be applied in Thunderbird as well.

Comment 5

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

(In reply to Arno Welzel from comment #4)

Yes, I use Ctrl+R (or "Followup" button) - as I said in the bug report: Try a post a reply in the newsgroup (not e-email!).

Please see https://github.com/Betterbird/thunderbird-patches/blob/main/91/bugs/1342809-follow-up-newgroup.patch - there is already a fix for this in Betterbird. It just has to be applied in Thunderbird as well.

So it is Followup that doesn't work, and you can't supply a Subject for a post I can test with?

Should I just pick one from the group and try to follow up with some nonsense in my post?

Comment 6

[Arno Welzel]

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #5)

(In reply to Arno Welzel from comment #4)

Yes, I use Ctrl+R (or "Followup" button) - as I said in the bug report: Try a post a reply in the newsgroup (not e-email!).

Please see https://github.com/Betterbird/thunderbird-patches/blob/main/91/bugs/1342809-follow-up-newgroup.patch - there is already a fix for this in Betterbird. It just has to be applied in Thunderbird as well.

So it is Followup that doesn't work, and you can't supply a Subject for a post I can test with?

Should I just pick one from the group and try to follow up with some nonsense in my post?

Yes - as I already explained in by bug report and in my first reply.

YES - IT IS "Followup" - either using the button or Ctrl+R.

Please also see my reference to Github - there is already a fix available which just has to be used for Thunderbird as well - thank you!

Comment 7

[Arno Welzel]

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #5)

(In reply to Arno Welzel from comment #4)

Yes, I use Ctrl+R (or "Followup" button) - as I said in the bug report: Try a post a reply in the newsgroup (not e-email!).

Please see https://github.com/Betterbird/thunderbird-patches/blob/main/91/bugs/1342809-follow-up-newgroup.patch - there is already a fix for this in Betterbird. It just has to be applied in Thunderbird as well.

So it is Followup that doesn't work, and you can't supply a Subject for a post I can test with?

Should I just pick one from the group and try to follow up with some nonsense in my post?

In addition to my other reply - this is a post with which the problem can be verified:

http://al.howardknight.net/?STYPE=msgid&MSGI=%3Csseenl%24155k%241%40gioia.aioe.org%3E+

Please also see my reference to Github - there is already a fix available which just has to be used for Thunderbird as well - thank you!

Comment 8

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

I see several replies to that post using different versions of Thunderbird including 91.5.0, 91.5.1 and 98.0a1.

Maybe those users selected Reply Anyway from the "Reply Not Supported" dialog, which opened a composition window in my Thunderbird 97.0b3 on Fedora 35 with only the newsgroup address in the header.

Sorry, I don't see an issue.

Comment 9

[newsfan]

@WaltS48: The problem is stated in comment #0: When following up on a post to a newsgroup, the (frequently fake/invalid) address of the original author is irrelevant and should not be checked. The warning is confusing and pressing "Reply Anyway" should not be required.

Comment 10

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

Attachment: reply not supported.png

This is the error I get using the Fedora supplied Thunderbird 91.5.0, also the 91.5.1, 97.0b3 and 98.0a1 from Thunderbird.

Also tried this the offending newsgroup post using version 78.14.0, the last version before the update to version 91.0.

There Thunderbird opened a followup with just the newsgroup address with no error.

This leads me to believe that the error message is a new feature and this bug report is invalid.
Somebody had to write the code for the error and have it trigger. No?

Magnus, your thoughts?

Comment 11

[Arno Welzel]

(In reply to WaltS48 [:walts48] from comment #10)

Created attachment 9262130 [details]
reply not supported.png

This is the error I get using the Fedora supplied Thunderbird 91.5.0, also the 91.5.1, 97.0b3 and 98.0a1 from Thunderbird.

Also tried this the offending newsgroup post using version 78.14.0, the last version before the update to version 91.0.

There Thunderbird opened a followup with just the newsgroup address with no error.

This leads me to believe that the error message is a new feature and this bug report is invalid.
Somebody had to write the code for the error and have it trigger. No?

This error message should not show when you write a followup to the newsgroup. Because in that case it does not matter at all what "Reply-To" address the poster has.

The check for the "Reply-To" adress must only be done, when creating a reply to the sender of the post and not a followup to the newsgroup.

Comment 12

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

Then why was the code added after 78.14.0?

When/if time permits, I'll try to find that bug report.

Fix Betterbird if you must, but don't force the changes on Thunderbird, because one user doesn't know how to post to a newsgroup.

If you have other examples, I would be happy to test them.

Comment 13

[newsfan]

@WaltS48: See bug 1342809 comment #24 for the context. That bug regressed the unwanted behavior. Bug 1342809 implemented the warning for a mail recipient and erroneously also made it apply to newsgroup follow-ups. Please also note that the behavior is not triggered by the Reply-To: but rather the From: of the original post as you can see in in the screenshot you posted in comment #10. Further note that newsgroup posters frequently use invalid addresses, for example, look for "invalid" in the the newsgroup that was mentioned here. The address [e-mail] falls onto the same category and the user in question has followed the rules. You can also search for "Arie de Muijnck <[e-mail]> in alt.comp.software.thunderbird" to see more examples that will trigger the incorrect behavior.

Comment 14

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

So, Magnus suggested filing this bug report bug. Got it!

Maybe it should have been filed in the same component, and about version 91 which is still going to be around for a while.

Comment 15

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: Bug 1752741 - Don't check the from address when the reply goes only to the newsgroup. r=rnons

Based on https://github.com/Betterbird/thunderbird-patches/blob/main/91/bugs/1342809-follow-up-newgroup.patch

Comment 16

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/rev/1bd18075dd20
Don't check the from address when the reply goes only to the newsgroup. r=rnons a=mkmelin

Comment 17

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Don't know if this is important enough to uplift.

Comment 18

[Rachel Martin]

It's a riskless regression fix. Same goes for bug 1751461, BTW.

Comment 19

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Comment on attachment 9262648 [details]
Bug 1752741 - Don't check the from address when the reply goes only to the newsgroup. r=rnons

[Approval Request Comment]
Safe fix for edge case replying to news.

Comment 20

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Comment on attachment 9262648 [details]
Bug 1752741 - Don't check the from address when the reply goes only to the newsgroup. r=rnons

[Triage Comment]
Approved for esr91

Comment 21

[Rob Lemley [:rjl]]

Thunderbird 91.8.0:
https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-esr91/rev/0b8e4cd97b40

Comment 22

[WaltS48 [:walts48]]

Looks good in the 91.8.0 release candidate.