On 27 Aug 2005 at 21:11, dhbailey wrote:

> David W. Fenton wrote:
> > On 27 Aug 2005 at 20:13, dhbailey wrote:
> >
> >>Whatever happened to having the Reply behavior be:
> >>REPLY = reply to list only
> >>REPLY ALL = reply to list and sender
> > 
> > You're now talking about the specific implementation of reply 
> > functions in a particular email client. Mine, Pegasus Mail, pops up
> > a dialog listing all the addresses in the header and allows you to
> > check off the specific ones you want to send to (and it's sticky, so
> > the checks for one message continue in the next reply). This makes
> > it extremely easy to selectively reply to different addresses.
> 
> No, I'm no talking about the specific implementation of reply
> functions in a particular e-mail client.

Yes, you *are* talking about that, because there is no such thing as 
a REPLY ALL header.

> I haven't changed a darn thing in Netscape reply functions ever, and
> I've been on lists where REPLY goes to the list and REPLY ALL goes to
> both the list and the original sender, I've been on lists where REPLY
> goes to the original sender and REPLY ALL goes to original sender and
> list (orchestralist is set up that way now at yahoogroups) and they've
> all worked as they were set up with no change on my part to my e-mail
> client.

Reply All ought to go to the list and the original sender, because 
the FROM address will be the original sender and the Reply-To address 
will be the list.

> I realize that not all messages are urgent enough to need to be sent
> twice to the original poster, but what's wrong with setting REPLY ALL
> to do that? . . .

Well, if it's not working for you, then take it up with the 
programmers of Eudora -- it has absolutely nothing to do with the 
mailing list. There is no "REPLY ALL" header in email, and there 
never has been.

> . . . Thus people who want to reply only to the list need only
> hit REPLY and those who want to ensure the original sender gets the
> message as well (for whatever reason) hit REPLY ALL.

So far as I can see, that's exactly the way it should still work, 
unless Eudora's interpretation of "REPLY ALL" is actually more like 
"SELECTIVELY REPLY TO SOME OF THE ADDRESSES LISTED IN THE HEADER OF 
THIS EMAIL, BUT CHOOSE THEM ACCORDING TO SOME ALGORITHM DESIGNED TO 
CONFUSE DAVID BAILEY." ;)

> Aren't those the functions originally designed for the two different
> reply buttons in e-mail clients?

No, not at all.

The FROM header is used for the TO address of the reply in all cases, 
unless there's a Reply-To header, in which case the Reply-To header 
will be used. The whole function of the Reply-To header is to 
override the FROM address. Mailing lists are a perfect example of how 
that is a good design. A post to the list is from an individual, even 
though it is technically sent by the list. But for discussion to 
continue on the list, replies need to go to the list, rather than 
only to the sender. So, the Reply-To header is set to the list 
address.

Anyone who wants to reply to the sender but not the list can choose 
that address according to the capabilities of their email client. 
With some clients, you have to choose REPLY ALL and then cut out the 
ones you don't want. With others, like Pegasus Mail, you get the 
choice of which addresses to reply to.

The whole discussion of the Reply-To behavior was a general agreement 
that it was a *bad* idea to have both the sender address and the list 
address in the Reply-To header. You seem to prefer that because of 
the specific implementation of reply functionality in your email 
client. But most people on the list disagreed with you and wanted the 
Reply-To set to only the list.

Were you asleep through all of that? :)

In any event, what any particular email client does with the FROM and 
REPLY-TO headers is entirely up to the designers of that email 
client. I agree that REPLY ALL ought to reply to the FROM, REPLY-TO 
and CC fields. If Eudora is not doing that, well, it really isn't a 
problem with the list configuration.

-- 
David W. Fenton                        http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
David Fenton Associates                http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc

_______________________________________________
Finale mailing list
[email protected]
http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale

Reply via email to