When a mail was sent by kMail with an IMAP account, usually a copy of the mail is stored in an IMAP folder called "Sent Mail" or similar.  If the mail was sent directly, a copy of the mail is stored in a folder on the local host.

The same holds true for news postings sent w/ knode: a copy of the article is stored on the local machine.

But when answering to a news article directly w/ @mail, no copy is stored.  Thus, one has no control over what was sent and if it was sent at all.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Have kMail set as your mail client, and kNews set as your news reader.
2. In kNode, answer via @mail to a news article directly to the author of the article.
3.
Actual Results:  
No copy of the mail is stored: neither on the local host, nor in the folder for sent mail of the sending IMAP-account (IMAP does not send the mail but you know what I mean).
No chance to know whether the mail was sent or not.

Expected Results:  
Negation of the above.

KDE 4.9.5@FreeBSD 9.1

I can not decide if this is a bug in Kontact, kMail, or kNode or all of those.  I suspect it's in kNode.

I thought a few minutes whether this is a major or normal bug.  Then I voted for major, because it's troublesome that the whole data is discarded.  It's a major requirement for communication that one can track what was sent.  YMMV.