Re:Reply-to?

[David Smith <smithd @ blkbox . com>]

At 12:38 PM -0500 2/24/98, Robert Comperini wrote:
>It's always been my impression that most lists are set up for "reply to the
>list" (instead of reply to the originator).
>
>Am I right? Wrong? Is there a "suggested setting"?

There are reasons to do both.  Many people belive that it is bad or
inapproate to change the "reply-to:" header to the list:

- If the poster has an invalid "From:" nuking the "reply-to" may make them
unreachable directly
- it makes it harder to reply directly to a poster
- it can lead to sending mail intended for just the poster to the list

Others say there are good reasons to set the default action to reply to the
list:

- it stimulates dicussions on the list
- many people just send via the default reply and don't know, or want to
take the extra effort, to do a "reply to all" and so dicsussions tend to
wither on the list
- On technical lists in particular, questions never seem to get answered,
unless the poster is good enough to post a summery the same questions get
asked again and again, even if there is an archive, since answers send
directly to the poster don't get on the list or into the archives or FAQ.
- Using "reply to all" sends the orignal poster two messages.


I belive it is a choice, based on your feelings as a list owner and what
the list is about.  I set the "reply-to" to the list address on all lists I
create and leave it up the the list owner, if they wish, to remove it.
Majordomo by default does not set the "reply-to".

--------------
David A. Smith
<smithd@blkbox.com>
The box said: "Needs Windows 3.1 or better," so I bought a Macintosh.