Re: Is this an issue of posting etiquette?

[John Kaufmann]

At 030202 19:21 -0500, Shing-Fat Fred Ma wrote:

Please note that I've copied the lists.

Thanks, Fred. Actually, I anticipated that I *should* have replied to you *on*list (because this really is still an issue of list concern), and so posted again to the list - after you replied to the same post sent privately, with copy to the list. (Anyone trying to follow this thread might find the order confusing. :) I will not again make the mistake of replying off-list unless I am convinced that it really *should be private.

I think I owe an apology to the group for the tone
if indignation and condemnation in my past two
emails.  If it is an issue with the list administration,
then it's really inappropriate to the preaching about
manners.

It's very considerate of you to have such a sense of propriety but, if you had not been following the discussions at the time of the list administration change, it would be perfectly normal to wonder, What's going on here? I'm on a number of mailing lists (mostly via Yahoo groups, probably the largest administration of mailing lists, which *always* set "Reply-To:<list>". This is my only list which does not do that.

Despite the website that one respondent referred
to, I believe that the reply-to list should be coerced
to be to the list only.

Yes. During The Change a couple months ago, we had posts with duelling web sites, particularly

"Reply-To" Munging Considered Harmful <http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html>

and

"Reply-To" Munging Considered Useful <http://www.metasystema.org/essays/reply-to-useful.mhtml>

Presumably Andy sent you only the first; I think it's useful to see them side-by-side. [FWIW, I find the latter more compelling on the substance, as well as more gracefully written.] As you say,

It's easy enough to turn a
thread into a personal communication, but look at
all the extraneous traffic and individual emails from
not maintaining a clear distinction between forum
and independent communication.  There's no reason
why the protocol of a newsgroup wouldn't benefit
this forum.  There, the default reply is to the group.

All true. I'm pretty sure a majority of the list, if asked, would agree.
Likewise, Yahoo groups - probably the largest administration of mailing lists - *always* set "Reply-To:<list>", and somehow never have the autoresponder problems which prompted the change in this list. Oh, well...
--
John
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