Bug 68732

I'm not a KNode user, but I must state that this "feature" is kind of annoying for all other people also.

This is my scenario:
A reply was cross-posted to groups X and Y by a KNode user, which had Followup-to automatically set to group X. I (who read the ONLY group Y) reply to the message and don't notice the effect of Followup-To, which makes my newsreader send my message just to X. Then, I'll never read the replies to my message since I'm not subscribed to X.

Many KNode users I know don't figure this behavior of their client unless someone on the newsgroup calls their attention. Having a configuration option to disable this behavior is, IMHO, a must-have feature (and even if this behavior is still enabled by default, I'm sure that many (or even most?) users would disable it).

I completely agree with the other two guys. This is a kind of taking decisions away from the user that is totally unacceptable.

I could accept it if KNode warned me before sending the message that it had set follow-up to a specific group, but then it might as well warn me if I tried to post the message to more than one group, and leave the follow-up field alone.

It's actually considered bad behaviour on Usenet to set follow-up without  explicitly mentioning it in the message. Then, if you silently fut away from a discussion, and later try to explain that your news agent actually did it all by itself, you'll likely get an "Oh yeah? Dog ate your homework?" reaction. It is definitely not funny.

When I ran Windows, I used Forté Agent. I think that KNode on the whole is a good replacement for it, but I want this horrendous auto-fut "feature" banished from the face of the Earth.

In one of my newsgroups, a user fixed this misbehaviour by commenting out 5 lines of code. I don't think there is any excuse to delay anymore this fix.

By not giving an option to turn this off, I have an impression that knode developers are just trying to dictate how users should use the newsgroups. This is just an impression, hope that I'm wrong.

CVS commit by vkrause: 

- Don't overwrite follow-up field when re-editing an article.
- Add 'Don't ask again' option to the missing follow-up warning.

CCBUG: 68732


  M +12 -5     kncomposer.cpp   1.204
  M +3 -0      kncomposer.h   1.70


--- kdepim/knode/kncomposer.cpp  #1.203:1.204
@@ -169,5 +169,6 @@ KNComposer::KNComposer(KNLocalArticle *a
     : KMainWindow(0,"composerWindow"), r_esult(CRsave), a_rticle(a), s_ignature(sig), u_nwraped(unwraped),
       n_eeds8Bit(true), v_alidated(false), a_uthorDislikesMailCopies(dislikesCopies), e_xternalEdited(false), e_xternalEditor(0),
-      e_ditorTempfile(0), s_pellChecker(0), a_ttChanged(false)
+      e_ditorTempfile(0), s_pellChecker(0), a_ttChanged(false),
+      mFirstEdit( firstEdit )
 {
     mSpellingFilter = 0;
@@ -582,8 +583,14 @@ bool KNComposer::hasValidData()
         return false;
 
-    if (!followUp && (groupCount>2))
-      if (!(KMessageBox::warningYesNo( this, i18n("You are crossposting to more than two newsgroups.\nPlease use the \"Followup-To\" header to direct\nthe replies to your article into one group.\nDo you want to re-edit the article or send it anyway?"),
-                                       QString::null, i18n("&Send"),i18n("edit article","&Edit")) == KMessageBox::Yes))
+    if ( !followUp && groupCount > 2 ) {
+      if ( KMessageBox::warningYesNo( this,
+           i18n("You are crossposting to more than two newsgroups.\n"
+                "Please use the \"Followup-To\" header to direct the replies "
+                "to your article into one group.\n"
+                "Do you want to re-edit the article or send it anyway?"),
+           QString::null, i18n("&Send"), i18n("edit article","&Edit"), "missingFollowUpTo" )
+           != KMessageBox::Yes )
         return false;
+    }
 
     if (fupCount>12) {
@@ -1438,5 +1445,5 @@ void KNComposer::slotGroupsChanged(const
   v_iew->f_up2->insertItem("");
 
-  if(!currText.isEmpty())
+  if ( !currText.isEmpty() || !mFirstEdit ) // user might have cleared fup2 intentionally during last edit
     v_iew->f_up2->lineEdit()->setText(currText);
 }

--- kdepim/knode/kncomposer.h  #1.69:1.70
@@ -199,4 +199,7 @@ class KNComposer : public KMainWindow , 
     void composerDone(KNComposer*);
 
+  private:
+    bool mFirstEdit;
+
 };
 

Every time I reply to a cross-posted newsgroup posting, KNode automatically sets the Followup-To header to the first group on the list, even if I don't subscribe to it.  Normally I don't want to set the Followup-To header at all, and I have to remember to manually change it for each message I post.  It should be possible to disable this behaviour.

As has been pointed out, this flaw annoys not only KNode users but also other people reading newsgroups in which KNode users accidentally set Followup-To headers. 

Does anyone know why the developers are ignoring this issue?

*** Bug 113533 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

People have been complaining about this (not just here but in other fora) for almost two years.  Why are the developers ignoring it?  Could we please have an explanation?

That's easy: lack of time and developers.
If someone provides a patch I'll happily test and apply it.

It's at least three years old in fact: bug 56662 is an earlier request for the same bugfix.

The problem seems to be twofold:
Firstly, that followups are unnecessarily forced in the first place;
Secondly, that they are forced via a combo box which is reset from the newsgroups at the start of editing and every time the newsgroups change.  
As a combo box, it will only allow one followup group (an incorrect restriction in any case), and it will default to the first one in the list, regardless of which group the article was read in.

Though I know C++ I'm afraid I am new to developing KDE, so it may take me a little while to solve this in a "proper" way.  But I'll try to do so, before this bug causes too many more knode users to be accused of deliberately setting followups to different groups.  If there's a way to browse the class heirarchy for KDE and QT that's easier than find and grep, I'd be grateful to know ...

Created attachment 14503 [details]
Fix

1. Don't populate Followup-To just because the Newsgroups change.
2. A combo box is inappropriate for Followup-To as the user can't see all
entries (and with the previous implementation was limited to only one newsgroup
as well).  Make it into a text box until time permits even better
implementation.  See TODO comments for ideas.

Created attachment 24242 [details]
Bugfix

This patch moves the empty entry to the list of the f'up2-doropdown-box. knode
will not silently select a group anymore, but ask you to select an appropriate
group if you fail to select one before sending.

Is there no chance at all of ever getting this fixed after 6 years?  Volker asked for patches, after one had already been posted.  No doubt that can't even be applied anymore.

This is not a wishlist, it breaks Usenet behaviour.  On posts that are not cross-posted, there shouldn't even _be_ a Followup-To header in most cases (I just received an email complaint about a post with such a followup set).  On posts that _are_ cross-posted, I should be expected to be smart enough to know when that's right.  For the most part, it wouldn't bother me, but on one pair of groups, where the users expect, and want, everything cross-posted to both, I routinely screw everybody up by forgetting to remove the Followup that Knode specifies.

I have this exact same problem, with my (private) Usenet server refusing messages which have a Followup-To flag set and aren't a reply to another post.

According to the RFC, what Knode does is bad :
The Followup-To header field SHOULD NOT appear in a message, unless its content is different from the content of the Newsgroups header field.
(http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc5536#section-3.2.6)

If a developer tells me that, would I submit a patch for this, it would be taken into consideration, I am willing to try to write one.

SVN commit 1079182 by otrichet:

Place a hint inside the followup-to line edit when there are more than 2 groups selected.

Previous changes to the composer already remove the automatic modification of the followup-to headers:
The current and future behaviour is not to automatically set/change the followup-to headers.
BUG: 178208
BUG: 176418
BUG: 163240
BUG: 74275
BUG: 68732

Warning against posting to more than on groups without setting the followup-to will remain.

 M  +1 -0      CMakeLists.txt  
 M  +39 -15    composer/composer_view.ui  
 A             composer/followupto_combobox.cpp   [License: MIT]
 A             composer/followupto_combobox.h   [License: MIT]
 M  +44 -0     kncomposerview.cpp  
 M  +10 -0     kncomposerview.h  


WebSVN link: http://websvn.kde.org/?view=rev&revision=1079182

Will this change be backported to the 4.4 branch?

This bug still exists in KDE 4.5.  The Followup-To header is set even when replying to an article that isn't cross-posted.

Hello! Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but this project has been unmaintained for many years so I am closing this bug.