Harold Fuchs wrote:
2009/11/1 Barbara Duprey <[email protected]>
Just a thought -- there is a link that can be provided into the archives
for a particular thread. What if either (in order of preference) the list
manager, a moderator, or anybody on the list who knows how, sent a message
to the unsubscribed poster containing that link? The poster would not have
to subscribe (thereby getting what could potentially be a dismaying number
of messages -- and often leading to a "please unsubscribe me" message). Yet
they'd be able to follow the discussion, wouldn't they, to see any responses
on the thread?
I *think* that the main source of the problem is that the moderator's e-mail
program and/or his/her installation of the list management software is
mis-configured.
The list management software is called "ezmlm" ("Easy Mail List Management"
or some such). The ezmlm manual is on-line at <http://www.ezmlm.org/manual/>.
Section 1.6 discusses replying to a message from an ezmlm mailing list (see
http://www.ezmlm.org/manual/Replying.html#Replying>). It suggests quite
clearly that a "Reply all" should go to the list *and* to the unsubscribed
originator of the message.
Perhaps the moderator has overriden the default "reply to" address in the
ezmlm config file(s) and/or in his/her own e-mail program ????
In the immortal words of Sandy Powell: can you hear me, mother?
The Reply-To header is forced to the list only. Whether that could be
changed or not, it's been discussed here many times and nothing has ever
happened -- I don't think mother hears us! I'm also not sure how good
we'd be at remembering to use Reply All, or whether it would carry
throughout the discussion. If somebody just used Reply, and then
somebody deeper in the thread actually answers the OP's question, we'd
be back where we are now, right? I almost never use Reply All myself,
I'm pretty sure I'd sometimes forget! From what Paul (a? the? moderator
for this list) has said on-list, the moderators really don't have any
say in what the ezmlm setup is, and I think the approval process is
outside of the normal e-mail client use. The responsible person or
group, and the list owner, remain mysterious (at least as far as I've
seen here). One of the reasons I'm exploring the archive link is that it
could be accomplished as part of the list management protocol, or by the
moderator, or by people like us -- depending on who we could get to listen.
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