37641 - Warn before replying to really old Usenet messages

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(MailNews Core :: Composition, enhancement)

Description

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Some Usenet servers (such as news.mozilla.org, for example) keep messages for a 
long time, longer than the messages remain relevant. It would help if Mozilla 
could warn the user if they tried to reply to any message which was a month old 
or more.

Suggested alert:

+------------------------------------------------------+
|[] Reply :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::|
+------------------------------------------------------+
|   .   The message you are replying to was posted on  | \
|  /V\  26 September 1999, more than a month ago. Are  | } large system font
| (_o_) you sure you want to continue with your reply? | /
|                                                      |
|       It is possible the message was posted from a   | \
|       computer where the date was set incorrectly.   | |
|       If so, you can ignore this warning.            | \ small system
|                                                      | / font
|       [*] Warn me if I reply to other old messages   | |
|           while in this group                        | /
|                                                      |
| [?]                        ( Cancel ) (( Continue )) |
+------------------------------------------------------+

`While in this group' means `for as long as I don't switch to another group' -- 
it should persist if I quit Mozilla and restart it with this group selected, but 
it should not persist if I switch to read another group/folder and then switch 
back to this group again.

Unlike bug 3746, `Should have optional warnings for USENET etiquette errors', 
this warning should apply before the user begins the reply, rather than after.

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

I'd suggest this is wontfix. It's simply not a big problem... and who's to say what a "too long" time is? A month or two certainly isn't too long if you happen to have useful info to follow-up with. YMMV of course.