[erlang-questions] mailing list "reply to"

[YC]

Hi James -

On Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 5:15 PM, James Churchman <jameschurchman@REDACTED>wrote:

> I guess this makes some sense that it does not send duplicate messages!
>
> Before i was removing the other recipients every time with reply all
>

I can see how you would think mailing list should munge reply-to if you did
not know how it works and end up modifying the recipients every time - I
quite often wonder why people are in favor of munging, now I know a valid
reason.

Consider that the frustration felt for people who know how it works and
want/need to send private messages when the reply-to is munged.  Few things
feel worse than having a confidential private message to accidentally end up
in a public list.


> Tho still it's unintuitive until explained especially as goggle groups,
> yahoo groups and all the many other malling lists i have still all behave in
> the opposite fashion with reply to list begin the default.


Their settings are wrong - and perhaps their admins also are unfamiliar with
now mailing lists are supposed to work.


> i'd also say sending individual replies should be discourages by default,
> as everybody gets to learn from the replies to the list.. so even after
> understanding the reasoning this still feels wrong to me


The problem with reply-to munging is that it breaks private reply and often
causes people to send a completely private message inadvertently to the
public.  The concept of discouraging private reply for learning is overrated
- people private message because they have a reason to.  If they pm for no
reason they'll learn quickly that for many that's considered poor etiquette,
since that effectively obligates the recipient's time when it's all
voluntary.

My 2 cents.  Cheers,
yc