[OS X TeX] Lobbying for Reply-To as it used to be

[Gary L. Gray]

On Mar 22, 2004, at 6:29 AM, Bruno Voisin wrote:

> A few weeks ago the Reply-To field for this list was changed, from the  
> whole list to the original poster. This was done, I think, after  
> people complained the original behaviour violated common list  
> etiquette. In particular, because of this, it might happen that  
> replies intended for the original poster only were sent to the whole  
> list, creating discomfort and embarassment.
>
> I would like to lobby for a return to the original behaviour. It seems  
> to me that the default way of proceeding, when replying to a list  
> message, is to reply to the whole list, not the original poster. After  
> all, messages to a list are supposed to be in everybody's interest,  
> and similarly for the reply and ensuing thread. It is only in specific  
> circumstances that one may want to reply to the original poster only,  
> I think.
>
> At the time of the change I thought I would adapt easily to the new  
> behaviour and said nothing, but now after a few weeks I'm still  
> finding this new behaviour inconvenient and illogical. Often I reply  
> to one person when I think I've replied the whole list; judging by  
> some messages I receive, I guess I'm not the only one.

Eek! This has certainly generated some interesting discussion. As the  
person who "maintains" this list, I am perfectly happy to set it up  
either way. A web-based poll was suggested, but I fear that someone who  
feels very strongly about the choice may vote more than once (cf.  
Chicago politics of old) and I don't want to try and figure out a way  
to avoid this using Cookies or some such thing. :-)

Instead, I will do the following (I may be sorry for doing this). Send  
an email message to me with one of the following subject lines (please  
copy and paste one of the two choices so that I can filter them or use  
the links below):

go back to the original list behavior

keep the new list behavior

Where, of course, "go back to the original list behavior" will be the  
behavior in which the list software sets the reply to header for you  
and where "keep the new list behavior" will be the current behavior in  
which replies go to the original message poster.

In most mail clients (I know it works in Mail), you need only choose  
one of the following two mailto links:

go back to the original list behavior:
<mailto:gray at engr.psu.edu? 
subject=go%20back%20to%20the%20original%20list%20behavior>

keep the new list behavior:
<mailto:gray at engr.psu.edu?subject=keep%20the%20new%20list%20behavior>

I will tally up the responses and let you know what the totals are  
later this week.

All the best,

-- Gary

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