Hello, as I am actively following the list these days I am slightly annoyed with the header settings of the list. I have got the feeling that they are misconfigured as they are. Prove me wrong if I havent got the list policy right, but that is how it looks to me right now.
Other *discussion* lists (as opposed to *announce- ment* lists) I am actively participating in have the reply-to header set to the list address. Dspace-tech does not have a reply-to header and the from-line is not rewritten to the list address (and should not be). I have searched the list archive whether this had been discussed before and I am really astonished that I couldnt find anything and that everybody seems to be happy. The result of a missing reply-to header is that you have to use the reply-all function of your mail client to answer back to the list, which seems unnatural. In most cases, answers seem to be sent in private mail as implied by the missing header. As of my perception, this makes the list *more* noisy as required and renders the list archive less useful. Let me explain. If I answer simple questions that I feel capable to answer properly right now to help others that start using DSpace, I sometimes get replies such as "thank you, but three others told me the same before". So three people have spent time and thought on helping beginners. What a waste. These answers start to discourage me from answering questions older then an hour or two, although I might be one of the few people reading the list at that time because I am living in the european "time gap" between the user groups in Asia an America. None of the three answers went to the list archive. The same question will pop up on the list again some days later. You cant simply point somebody to the list archive as usual, because it does not contain the knowledge present on the list. If I see a disclosure triangle besides a new post in the threaded view of my mailer, I dont bother to answer or read a question unless I am interested to learn about the subject myself. Most questions seem to remain unheard though. You dont know, whether they are or not. In some cases, they get reposted on dspace-general, which is the time you know that nobody took care of them. Motivation to participate actively in a list might be different, but sometimes philantropy and selfish- ness come along with each other. Being visible on the web in a list archive demonstrates a certain level of knowledge and involvement. This could foster a kind of competition to be the first to answer and help every participant to get quick responses. Last thing. When I forgot to hit reply-all, I sometimes resend it to the list when I feel it is worth it. Today I learned that this doesnt cure the issue as intended. The answer is not contained in the threaded view in the archive then. I would have to reply with reply-all a second time, copying the former answer to the new message to retain the right message id. I hope it was not too lengthy and boring. Please tell me if I have misunderstood some basic concept of this list. Bye, Christian ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ DSpace-tech mailing list DSpace-tech@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/dspace-tech
