From: <suse@rio.vg>
Anders Johansson wrote:
On Tuesday 15 August 2006 01:28, ken wrote:
I'll say it again another way. One side is arguing that replying to the list makes more sense. The other side keeps coming back to a notion of what is "correct".
Did you read the article I linked to? I'll give you the link again
http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html
The argument is entirely based upon what makes sense. No one talks about being more or less "correct", that's for the debate between top and bottom posting
I read it, and frankly it's a load of bollocks. His argument doesn't even make sense. He says "Reply-to-all" is better, but, in fact, that would probably send the e-mail twice to the author (once direct, once through the mailing list), and possibly screw up threads if the author then replies to the e-mail he got directly from the sender, rather than over the list...
In point of fact this nails me quite often. The direct email usually comes before the indirect. And a simply reply, which I presume should send email to the list rather than the author, ends up going to the author. Dual Reply-to: is more evil than always sending to either one or the other possible destination. It breaks up conversational flow.
But this guy sounds like he hasn't come anywhere near the 21st century. Evidence his rant about how hard it would be for him to reply only to the author: "Look at the original message header, write down the sender's email address, hit the "r" key, call up the header editing menu, erase the current To: value, and type in the sender's full email address." Apparently, the author is completely incapable of using this new-fangled invention called a "mouse", which can, apparently "select", then "copy" text. (It's only been around for a good 30 years) Not to mention that the vast majority of e-mail programs list the headers conveniently with every compose for easy editing. I use three different mail programs, depending on where I am and what I'm doing. mutt, thunderbird, and horde. Each of them behaves differently, but editing a "To:" field isn't that hard in any of them.
Hey, if he wants to be stupid and do it the hard way let him. I encourage it. That way his stupidity might not spread to widely. Or maybe he's afraid of sharp objects so he eschews "cut" and paste.
Simply put, the vast majority of replies to messages coming from a list are meant to go back to the list. In the vast majority of cases, munging the Reply-to makes things easier and quicker for the vast majority of people.
Perzactly. Of course, we're in an rwar here so brains are turned off just like they are in other religious debates - like politics. {^_-}