On 5 Feb 2003 at 15:25, Illtud Daniel wrote:

> [...] but I've sometimes been annoyed, not offended, by
> replies to myself which also went to the list - **which
> don't explicitly say so**. The reason for this is that
> in common with lots of other people who are subscribed to dozens
> of mailing lists, I tend to read my inbox first, then filtered
> mailing lists when I have the time. If I get an email in my
> inbox, 

This is one more reason why I personally prefer an altered subject line to filter 
on, such as:

Subject: [VNC] Re: Is this an issue of posting etiguette?

But that's another item that generates a lot of argument. :) Probably from the 
bad-old-days when we used to see:

Subject: [VNC][VNC][VNC] Re: Re: Re: Is this...

Today's software is smarter than that, but the subject tag still annoys many 
people.

> I assume that it's a reply to me, not to the list, and
> I (often) reply back with a lengthy mail. Later on, I read the
> same message on the mailing list, and *then* I get a bit annoyed,
> since the people on the list would probably also appreciate the
> reply, 

Point taken.

> Oh, and on the Reply-to: issue - surely it's either an outdated
> majordomo or a broken config if it can't spot loops? This isn't
> a new issue by any stretch of the imagination - or is it a matter
> of prolification of broken email clients/autoresponders?

No, loops are not a new issue, and you'd hope that MTAs aren't still being 
released without loop-detection, but the anecdotal evidence would seem to be 
otherwise. Perhaps there's a configuration issue.

IMO, the user shouldn't get a free-pass, however, when his client sends an 
auto-response to a list. If he's going to take the trouble to learn to setup an 
auto-reply, he should take the trouble to learn to configure it not to send to 
list-addresses. On my MTA, I've put some effort into hand-crafting filters to 
strip auto-replies before they enter my network, but the occasional auto-reply 
will still slip through occasionally. The loop-detection then prevents it being 
broadcast more than once every 24 hours, but that's still annoying to a lot of 
people.

Hell, IMO, the user shouldn't get a free-pass when his client sends an auto-
response -- period. :) One of the wonderful things about EMail is that it can be 
read at the recipient's convenience. If I expected an immediate response, I 
would've telephoned. That's why shredding all such messages to all users at 
the MTA doesn't bother me; I don't consider auto-replies a useful feature.
 
 
-- Pete Phillips
-- San Antonio, Texas
-- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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