The reply-to-harmful argument by Chip Rosenthal was interesting but to me flawed. I would say that using a reply-to to the list is the correct way.
Following his summary: 1. He considers it to be munging. I don't. It is the list server that is sending out the e-mails to everyone so it properly is the one that the reply-to should be sent to. 2. It provides an immense benefit to the user of a reasonable emailer ( he showed his elitism here, Elm???? ) 3. It provides the same freedom to choose how to respond 4. It provides the same functionality for the user 5. It may or may not remove important information - again, the sender sent it to the list server, the list server is responding by sending it out to everyone else. It all depends on your perspective. 6. It allows the user the freedom to use whatever e-mail client one wishes 7. It follows the principle of least work because the majority of times, we want to reply only to the group. Also, the sender of the email only has to see one reply back and not deal with two e-mails. When following the way Chip Rosenthal stated, when you reply to all, the author of the original email ends up getting two e-mails which doubles the work that person has to do. Furthermore, if he wants to reply to the entire group again, he must make sure he replies to the correct e-mail. Also, if he had a reasonable mailer, it is as simple as copy-paste - none of that stupid write it down and hope. I actually had to do more work because of the way this list works, since I wanted the e-mail to go only to the list and not make 'gouki' deal with two e-mails. I had to drag the mailing list address to the to line and delete 'gouki' address (totally exhausted from that). 8. It follows the principle of least surprise because it sends to the list which is what the intent of a list-group is. 9. It prevents a failure mode where a message to the entire group gets sent to only a single person. Furthermore, when we know our response is going to be seen by the entire group, most sane people will be more civil. When we can automatically send to just one person, it can encourage some rather nasty exchanges. 10. As a subscriber, I want the reply-to to be to the list. Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if this guy had replied to someone on a list, flaming the guy up one side and down the other, thinking it would go only to the individual when it went to the entire group and so he was completely embarrassed by his actions. One other thing. Some people want their e-mail addresses to be private, they don't want the entire list to know it (or due to work restrictions can't have it known). By always including the senders e- mail address, it prevents some from being able to join a list. Bill ----- William E. Reveal [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.wereveal.com/ ----- On Nov 18, 2008, at 6:31 AM, Tiago 'gouki' Faria wrote: > Even though I agree with replies being sent to the list automatically, > and I do that on the list I maintain, I can say in advance that Evan > will ask you to read the following document: > > http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html > > I brought this issue to him via IRC once, and he asked me to read that > same document. Makes sense but I still believe it's easier to have it > set up to the list instead of the original writer. > > Tiago > > - > .--. > |o_o | Tiago 'gouki' Faria [ [EMAIL PROTECTED] ] > |:_/ | > // \ \ Jabber: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > (| | ) WWW: http://goukihq.org > /'\_ _/`\ > \___)=(___/ > > > On Tue, 2008-11-18 at 12:15 +0100, Tommie Podzemski wrote: >> "Just noticed that my reply from yesterday only went to Craig" >> >> This have happened to me a few time as well, could we please >> change the >> replies to "[email protected]" which our email-clients will >> default >> to when hitting "reply" on a thread. Rather than replying to the >> original sender. >> >> I believe the mailman setting is the following: >> reply_goes_to_list = 1 >> >> Thanks, >> Tommie >> _______________________________________________ >> Laconica-dev mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://mail.laconi.ca/mailman/listinfo/laconica-dev > _______________________________________________ > Laconica-dev mailing list > [email protected] > http://mail.laconi.ca/mailman/listinfo/laconica-dev _______________________________________________ Laconica-dev mailing list [email protected] http://mail.laconi.ca/mailman/listinfo/laconica-dev
