Reply-to (was: dselect oddities)
On Mon, 18 May 1998 09:07:52 -0300 (ADT), Trevor Barrie wrote:
>> No, the reply I thought went to the list didn't because this list does
>> not correctly set the reply-to field.
>Seems to me it sets it right... ie, it leaves it how the original
>sender set it. Stepping on a user's header is a Bad Thing IMO.
Incorrect. Many mailing lists, in fact, the grand majority that are run
properly, set the reply-to to the list. This is because a mailing list for
discussion among a group and replies should default back to the group without
a CC to the original poster.
Without the reply-to field set the behavior for many clients is to either
reply to the user alone (which most people do not want, they want to reply to
the list) or reply to everyone to get the list. The problem with that is if
that trend continues a copy is sent to the list as well as copies to every
person who ever participated in a thread. Without the efforts of the
individuals in this thread alone we would be sending duplicates to a good 7-8
members. If we are going to have private CC lists like that, what is the
point of having the list software to distribute the mail? In short, it is
bad form.
The only thing that prevents both of those, automatically, is to set the
reply-to to the list. This means that people who want to reply to the list
(which is, IMHO, the default behavior outside of announce lists) can do so
easily, we're not constantly culling the CC: list of duplicate entries, and
for the rare case when people want to send a private message to the
individual of a particular message nearly all of the modern email clients on
a variety of platforms give the user the choice of which address to send to
with the reply-to as default.
--
Steve C. Lamb | Opinions expressed by me are not my
http://www.calweb.com/~morpheus | employer's. They hired me for my
ICQ: 5107343 | skills and labor, not my opinions!
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