My advice is, don't worry about the default. If you don't like it, just change it.
"man muttrc" and look for "forward_format". I think you want something like this in your ~/.muttrc: set forward_format = "Fwd: %s" or: set forward_format = "FW: %s" They are both common patterns. And they are both much shorter than the default, since they don't include the forwarder's email address or the enclosing square brackets. Don't get me wrong. You have a good point. The forwarder's email address doesn't need to appear in the Subject: header because it also appears in the From: header (even though many mail clients don't show that for some reason which is a bad thing), and if it matters that an email was forwarded, that fact can be indicated in the Subject: header. But changing defaults affects others that might like things the way they are. Although, I suspect that many users probably wouldn't mind one way or the other. I admit that I've never liked "FW:". "Fwd:" is better. But I'm also OK with it how it is. I don't think I forward emails very often, so my opinion probably doesn't matter. cheers, raf