Hi,

I was just asked to approve a mailing list post where the list software
said "too many recipients".  In recent weeks, there have been posts with
large attachments, and tons of top posts.

I'm sure there are lots of mailing list etiquette articles on the net,
so I won't try to re-create those or provide a full justification.  And
it isn't my intent to try to enforce any particular style.  Certainly,
different styles work better in different situations so there is no "one
size fits all" answer.

Since this is a mailing list (with archives), it saves a lot of reader
effort if you don't just "top post" responses.  It forces people to
either ignore the pages and pages of included e-mail below, or to scroll
through to make sure that the top poster didn't also add comments
somewhere down there.  By taking the extra few minutes to quote what
you're responding to, a reader can quickly understand the context of
your post.

Reply-all behavior of certain e-mail clients ends up sending duplicate
responses to people involved in the discussion, one directly to them and
one through the mailing list.  I'd suggest responding only to the list
address itself, unless someone has asked to be copied (perhaps because
they are not a list member).

Large attachments would be best placed somewhere and referenced, if at
all possible.  But I recognize that this isn't always practical.

I'm thrilled with all the OpenHPI activity and don't want to stifle
that.  (It hasn't always been this way.)  But I offer the above as
suggestions to make our mailing list more effective.

Cheers,
Bryan


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