Re: [ECOS] Can someone fix this mailing list?

[Christopher Faylor <me at cgf dot cx>]

On Fri, Dec 24, 2004 at 03:41:08PM +0000, Alex Schuilenburg wrote:
>Gary Thomas wrote:
>>On Thu, 2004-12-23 at 21:20, Paul D. DeRocco wrote:
>>
>>>I'm getting tired of hitting Reply, and finding that my message only goes 
>>>to
>>>the person who sent the message I'm replying to, and then having to resend
>>>the message. (Or worse, never noticing that that's what happened.) Of the
>>>two dozen or so lists I'm on, this is the only one that doesn't insert a
>>>Reply-To address in the header, pointing to the list server. If Yahoo can
>>>get this right, you'd think that sourceware.org could manage it.
>>
>>
>>Sorry, but no.  We've been around this topic before and the consensus
>>is that automatic reply-to the list address causes much more pain than
>>having to hit "reply to all".
>
>IIRC the main reason for this was all the broken out-of-the-office style 
>autoresponders spamming the list, as well as delivery failures.
>
>However, list software has come along quite a way since then so surely 
>e.s.o. could be updated? I know how easy it is to hit reply-to rather 
>than reply-all.
>
>For a list that strongly encourages people to reply to the list rather 
>than responders directly, the current setup is counter-productive in 
>this respect. It seems only sensible to use the reply-to fields. At the 
>very least this will get rid of all the accidental direct email 
>responses that result in a "please reply to the list..." followup to the 
>list, and will stop duplicates if you happen to be involved in a thread. 
>(Yes, I use procmail to strip duplicates, but not everyone uses a decent 
>OS or mailer).

FWIW, if the consensus is that Reply-To is desirable, it is no problem
to add it.  Personally, I have come think that it is a necessary evil.
OTOH, I have my mail sending software set up to use reply-to for the lists
that need it.

cgf

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