On 5 Feb 2003 at 11:01, Shing-Fat Fred Ma wrote:

> Just out of curiosity, why would they not receive a reply?  I mean,
> if they are on the list.

I believe in my original reply I addressed several reasons why they may not be 
on the same list. They may be lazy, they may be on a sub-list, etc. I take it 
there are no sub-lists of the VNC list, but I wasn't sure of that when I saw the 
vnc-tight-list address.

> In my case, it's not a matter of being offended by personal communication.
> It's a matter of managability.  The purpose digest gets circumvented by
> this.  Anyone subscribing to the digest gets the same thing twice.  And
> the volume of list email increases not just twice.

I don't subscribe to digests except for my own, and those I mearly scan 
before deleting to ensure the function is working properly. I do understand the 
point, though, and I'll certainly take it into consideration in the future. However, 
I think that if one participates in a public mailing-list there is an inherent 
danger that one may receive EMail. :)

> Would a subscriber to the nondigest list get it twice, one from the
> respondent and another from the list?

Yes.

> If you received the email from the list (whichever
> list), the recipients of that list should get responses
> to the list (otherwise there is a problem elsewhere that
> needs fixing).

Not to nitpick, but to explain, and I understand I was mistaken in this case, 
but... Usually true. Not always. Sub-lists are not unheard of, especially when 
the subjects are as closely related as "VNC" and "Tight VNC". Not cross-
posting in the To: header can help to remove any ambiguity from the person's 
mind. (Cross post in the BCC field).

> The respondent always has the option of responding to all
> lists, but that's not his/her obligation. 

Sub-lists usually don't allow non-subscribers to post because it can cause 
duplicate posts to every single subscriber, not just a single person on digest-
mode.

> If in fact that is not a problem with the list
> administration, then I erred in responding to the list
> as if it were.  I have apologized for that. 

No apologies necessary to me. I'm just trying to fill in some answers for you, 
not flame.

> To be frank, I don't work in the area of processing
> email, so I'm not sure what Reply-All does in all
> circumstances.

It usually collects the addresses in Sender:, From:, Reply-to:, To:, CC:, and 
BCC: (most EMail clients don't actually strip the BCC list, they just don't 
display it by default), and then it removes duplicates. Using reply-all just 
saves typing; it's easier to delete incorrect addresses than type correct ones.

> If there is a Reply-To to avoid any ambiguity, it should
> also be the list. 

I agree. But since it cannot be altered if it was already added by the sender's 
client or added by a previous MTA, the address you're *actually* replying to is 
something you're always going to have to check on *any* mailing-list. A small 
percentage of the time, the results will not be what you expected, and there's 
nothing anyone can do about it.

> If it is the list administration that is automatically including the
> poster on the Reply-To field, I prefer otherwise.

Actually, the behavior you're unhappy with is caused at present by lack of any 
Reply-to header at all. This message will contain one, but that's added inside 
my network -- without it, the MTA wouldn't know which of 2 dozen domains 
this message came from. The list-server does not add one.
 
 
-- Pete Phillips
-- San Antonio, Texas
-- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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