Special fields: REPLY TO instead of FROM

PlayGod 16 Apr, 2008
I suggest you change the Special Fields' "From email field:" to do "Reply To:" instead.

The reason is that many spam filters compare the From: address and the originating domain, including any SPF records in the domain zone file, and if the From: address' domain does not match, the spam filter tends to classify the message as spam.

The From: address should ideally be a unique email address that is either at the originating domain, or included in the SPF record. That way, you can whitelist that address in your filters (SpamAssassin, Postini, GMail, etc.), and make it unique so it is not likely to be spoofed. The Reply To: address is not considered when ranking an email message for likeliness of being spam, so it can be dynamic from the form and be from any domain.

The reason for using the special field is to allow the form recipient to easily reply to the email, so it really needs Reply To:, not From:.

This should be a priority, because many of the emails created by chronoforms are going to get filtered and the form recipient may think the form is not working properly. I have deployed chronoforms on a few sites, and more often than not, the emails using Special Fields From: are getting trapped as spam. Those that use a static From: address are being delivered properly.

Thanks, and I hope someone can either offer a hack or you will roll this change into the next update.<br><br>Post edited by: PlayGod, at: 2008/04/15 20:36
GreyHead 16 Apr, 2008
Hi PlayGod,

Reply To: address is not considered when ranking an email message for likeliness of being spam

I'm not sure that it's correct that the ReplyTo address isn't checked. One of the most frequent problems we have here is that the ReplyTo address doesn't come from the site domain and emails are blocked.

I would agree with you that using the Special Fields 'From address' is also likely to cause problems. When the question comes up I discourage changing either address and suggest instead inserting a 'Reply To' link in the email.

Bob<br><br>Post edited by: GreyHead, at: 2008/04/16 12:43
PlayGod 16 Apr, 2008
Thanks, Bob, that's a better idea, should have thought of it! Simple!
yspec 09 Oct, 2009
I've noticed that my blackberry replys to teh FROM and ignores the REPLY TO field. Do you know anything about that?
When I reply to this specific email on my outlook, it responds to the REPLY TO. If i do the same on my Blackberry, it reply to the FROM.
GreyHead 09 Oct, 2009
Hi yspec,

No idea - a question for RIM perhaps??

Bob
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