[Mailman-Users] Reply to list

[Buddy Logan]

John -
Since this is a pet peeve of yours, maybe you should explain to me what is
wrong with overwriting the "reply to" header.
I guess it has been quite a few years since I have participated in a
discussion list but, as I recall, this used to be the common practice. It is
convenient, and makes perfect sense to me.  I'm no expert on header
information - perhaps it messes up the trail or something - I'm just really
curious as to what the controversy is.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Buttery" <john at io.com>
To: <mailman-users at python.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 2:37 AM
Subject: Re: [Mailman-Users] Reply to list

* Lena at lena.kiev.ua [2004-02-05 20:02:46 +0200]:
> http://www.metasystema.org/essays/reply-to-useful.mhtml

  I've read that before; doesn't change the fact that arbitrarily
overwriting the Reply-To: header destroys information.

> A good portion of my members (mostly newbies) use various web-based
> mailers.  They haven't a "Reply to all" button.

  Then their mailer is broken and they need to fix/change it.  Two
wrongs don't make a right.

> The members are newbies in computers - what I should do, refuse them
> in medical help until they buy own computer (a year average monetary
> income here) and master it?  Please remember that almost all members
> on non-technical lists are FAR less savvy than you are.

  That's not a compelling argument.  There are plenty of web-based
mailers that _do_ have a group-reply function (geez, even Hotmail and
Yahoo can handle that much).

  This all really comes down to one thing, and I apologize to everyone
if this comes out a bit harsh but it's a pet peeve of mine.  I really
could care less what a newbie "expects to see", I care about doing the
right thing.  Hopefully they coincide, but this is one of those cases
where they don't, and penalizing all the members of a mailing list by
having their Reply-To's erased just so that some newbie doesn't have to
think is not acceptable to me.  It's the Outlook virus, and I'm not
talking about a computer virus this time.

  Ford doesn't provide a chauffeur with every new car.  Learn the tool.

-- 
  John  ! Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid
 Buttery! thinking.  There is an almost universal quest for easy answers
www.io.c! and half-baked solutions.  Nothing pains some people more than
om/~john! having to think. -- Martin Luther King, Jr.