Re: Reply To

On Mon, 2003-04-21 at 15:01, Lonny Barry wrote:
> We also need to take a look at the reply-to address re-write to
> accomodate threads. Currently, replying to anything from the list sends
> it back to the original author and not the list.

*bangs his head against the wall*

It seems like every mailing list I subscribe to goes through this same
issue.  I'll summarize the arguments usually given:

Did a person send the email or did the list send the email?  I tend to
agree with the camp that says the person sent the email, so if I want to
reply, it goes back to the person, not to the list.  If I want to reply
to the list, I simply choose 'Reply to List'.  Not all email clients use
this capability though.

The alternative is to reply always to the list.  What if I want to reply
directly to an individual?  I either hit reply to all and take the email
addresses out, or I hit reply and I must manually find and type in the
person's email address, even though they emailed me via the list.  To
me, this is not a good default option.

Additionally, some users do not properly use the vacation feature with
their email.  You could get vacation replies sent to the list with a
reply-to list, where only one person would be inconvenienced with a user
reply-to option.  Same goes with those annoying read receipts.

For more info, check out:
http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html
http://cr.yp.to/proto/replyto.html
http://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=6693&group_id=1
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=reply+to+list+reply-to+sender&btnG=Google+Search


-- 
Jeremy Turner, Oklahoma Christian Univ     Phone: 405.425.5555
Email: [email protected]                Phone: 405.425.1820
http://blogs.oc.edu/jeremy.turner