Developers of Sympa

[Olivier Salaün - CRU <address@concealed>]

The comment_subscriber field has been introduced in Sympa to meet list 
owners needs. They were using the members gecos field to store 
information about the user (including name) using their own format. 
Therefore we had to store this information in a list-separated space. 
The gecos_user field is now used as a default for comment_subscriber, 
but there is no dynamic relationship between them.

Maybe we could enhanced the usability somehow...

Adam Bernstein wrote:

> Before I post a feature request in the bug tracker, I wonder if this 
> has already been discussed and/or dismissed, or if there is other 
> interest in it.  We've always found it strange that Sympa had two 
> different "name" fields for each user, one in the user table (gecos) 
> and one for each list in the subscriber table (comment), and our users 
> have often found it confusing and frustrating as well.  Is there a 
> logical reason for that duplication and separation?
>
> One of the problems is that users cannot update their name as it 
> appears in any list's subscriber list, because the Preferences setting 
> only updates the gecos field in the user table.  They would have to 
> submit a new subscription request with the updated name, which is 
> confusing and weird; in any case, they rightfully assume that updating 
> their name in Preferences should update it everywhere on the site.
>
> So, how about getting rid of the comment field in the subscriber list, 
> or at least synchronizing it fully with the gecos field everywhere 
> either one of them is changed?