27 Mar
2006
27 Mar
'06
18:06
On Monday 27 March 2006 12:21 pm, Felix Miata wrote: > Most lists are discussion lists, and as such intelligently set the > default reply-to to the group, which is how discussions are most easily > kept going. Accidental private sends frequently cause thread delays or > total breaks when a participant fails to notice his errant reply failed > to get sent back to him from the list. Not true. Most lists (at least the ones I both use and run) do NOT set the Reply-to. Listserv software, such as Mailman and Majordomo default to not setting the reply-to. Over the past 15+ years I have been running lists, we have had numerous discussions on this, as we have here. There are 2 reasons why setting the reply-to to the list is not desirable: 1. Mail loops. Occasionally when a user sets the vacation switch, with reply-to set back to the list, you can get an unending loop of vacation messages where the list admin usually needs to remove that user. 2. Many times replies are intended to the poster and not the list. By not setting reply-to, the listserv tends to keep the number of poster specific replies down. Also many email clients are not list-aware so that users can easily reply directly back to the list. -- Jerry FeldmanBoston Linux and Unix user group http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9 PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9