> Hitler
> first got into political office on a fair vote in a free election.
OK, that's it. Time to invoke Godwin's Law: the usefulness of a debate
is ended as soon as someone drags Hitler and the Nazis into it.
Amazing how accurate that is; nothing against the person who actually
is the one to do this, but by the time Hitler gets mentioned, the same
points have usually been made ad nauseum on both sides and people are
starting to resort to "arguing by extreme example". Attempting to
associate one's opponent with Hitler, even very indirectly, seems to be
a very common thing to happen at this point.
It seems clear that this is largely a matter of personal preference.
I generally don't subscribe to lists that have "reply to list" as
the default, because despite the fact that I am a long-time net
user and the postmaster of a mid-sized site, and therefore as entitled
to claim myself an expert on e-mail as anyone, and despite the fact
that Vince Sabio and others want to look down their noses at me,
I have, in the past, sent replies that were supposed to be private to
an entire mailing list, with embarassing results. I'm not an ignorant
newbie, it's just *habit*. I can type "r" for a private reply, and "g"
for a group reply. I'm used to it, and it is far too easy to make a
mistake when the assumptions I am used to operating under are violated.
I recognize the list owner's perrogative to run the list how
s/he pleases, but as a list member, I can also express my own preference
by not subscribing to lists with "reply to list" as the default.
--Greg
