Tim: >> In my opinion, many lists set the reply-to address because those lists >> are intended to keep replies on the list, and the list managers know >> that most people wouldn't do that if it wasn't preset for them. People >> will just hit reply, and expect it to do the right thing. Felipe Contreras: > I wonder, how do you think people are able to maintain private > conversations between multiple parties if they "will just hit reply"? Why do you think people do that? I put it to you that most people don't do any such thing. In a discussion about using mailing lists, your comment is so far off on a tangent that it's not funny. Outside of a mailing list, the usual way someone sends mail to a group is to pile all the addresses into the TO field. A few more clueful will make use of the CC field, but usually the TO field. Replies will usually go to all them, by default. But that isn't a mailing list, in the usual meaning of the term, it doesn't have some software in the middle distributing mail around, it goes to one person, who manually handles it. And it gets a right mess when several people reply, and repeated messages get fired about all over the place, with mangled quotes of quotes, HTML crap everywhere, broken forwarded partial contents of messages (see the attached file, that wasn't attached or included in any way...). The slightly clueful wanting to disseminate group mail without using a list server could manually start off by having an address just for it, posting TO it, & CCing all the other recipients. The recipients would receive a message addressed to the list, with them on the CC list. The recipients can reply to just the list TO address, and the owner could deal with it (simply read it, pass it, or part of it, on to the list, etc), or the recipients could reply to all the addresses, or to just some of them. The messiness of that all soon leads to seeing the advantage of using a list server that works like the Fedora one (being quite automating, distributing all the public mail, not requiring moderation). I am a former BBS SysOp, I'm more than well aware of a multitude of ways mail goes around, gets used and abused. And by far the easiest way to run a list between people who know sweet Fanny Adams all about mail distribution is to a list server that sets the reply-to address to the list, so all the replies go back to the list. Those who want to make a private reply are well able to, by writing to the individual. That's what address books are for, and most modern clients will let you click on an address somewhere in a post and write or reply to it, directly. If someone's inclined to post to numerous people privately, but not all, they can pile in all the addresses that they want to, and write to them directly. They'd have to manage that manually, anyway, whether the list changed the reply-to or not, because they'd be sidestepping the list. -- [tim@localhost ~]$ uname -r 2.6.27.25-78.2.56.fc9.i686 Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists. -- users mailing list users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe or change subscription options: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/users Guidelines: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
