[Linux-aus] List header

[Bret Busby]

On Tue, 4 Feb 2003, David Lloyd wrote:

> Date: Tue, 4 Feb 2003 17:46:19 +1030
> From: David Lloyd <lloy0076 at adam.com.au>
> To: Bret Busby <bret at busby.net>
> Cc: linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au
> Subject: Re: [Linux-aus] List header
> 
> 
> Bret,
> 
> > Is this just because the mailing list software is shuffling the
> > messages before distributing them (they seem to be out of sequence)?
> 
> I am receiving messages in weird sequences as well ;-P I don't
> particularly know why. 
> 
> However, if I click "reply all" your e-mail address--not the
> reply-to--gets put in the "to:" box. If I click "reply" then the
> reply-to does.
> 
> I don't like reply-to's myself but I wonder whether my last paragraph
> describes a bug or not...
> 
> 
> DSL
> 
> 

If I select Reply To All, I get your email address in the To address, 
and the list email address in the CC address. If I say no to Reply to 
all, I just get your email address in the To address.

I think it is email application dependent. I am using PINE 4.44; you are 
using sylpheed. I think it is to do with that.

I personally (and as a list administrator of several lists) prefer 
"munging"; setting the list software to default replies to the list. 
Most replies are for general consumption, so it makes it easier to reply 
to a list, and where people want to reply offlist (which, from my 
experience, is the lesser case), it is easy enough to adapt. the only 
problem with "munging", is when a list subscriber sets the Reply To 
address in their email application, and it overrides the list software.

A disadvantage of not having "munging", is when people use Reply To All, 
when replying to a message on a list, to ensure that the message goes 
back to the list, then the person to whom they are replying, gets the 
direct reply, and the reply distributed via the list. This is 
compounded, when people get really lazy, and don't delete any of the 
previous recipients in a thread, from the To/CC addresses, and then 
subscribers get to see the number of addressees increase with each reply 
to a message in a thread. I saw this in a list to which I subscribed, 
some time ago, in which everyone involved, should have known better, due 
to the natiure of the thread. It is one way to institute self-recursive 
mailing lists.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of 
  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
  written by Douglas Adams, 
  published by Pan Books, 1992 
....................................................