reply list

[Jim Graham]

First, my comment was not any official position (as I said "I" prefer).

A reply may not always be an answer.  I'm implying no hide-and-seek 
here, but intentionally I may want to clarify something before I make an 
informed public response, or hash out some half-baked ideas in private 
before bringing them to list in a "more well baked" form.  If I feel I 
am speaking from a position of knowledge then I will, quite 
instinctively, hit Reply-To-All and not even have to think about whether 
my message is reaching people.

To avoid beating this issue any further - my general feelings are 
summarized well by resources found at the following page:

http://marc.merlins.org/netrants/listreplyto.html

which points primarily to this really well written message on the topic:
http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html

(and also includes a pointer to a counter-point that he refutes as well 
in another link...)

			...jim

On 10/10/12 4:26 PM, Debasish Ray Chawdhuri wrote:
> Since the question was asked on the mailing list, other people
> following the mailing list should get the answers. There is no
> hide-and-seek here. Most of the time you should not contact the sender
> directly. Just in case you do (for whatever weird reason, is it too
> bad to be shared?), you can still copy address of the sender.
>
> You may be thinking of the mailing list as some kind of help forum,
> where you are the expert and and resolve people's problems, so you
> give an answer only to them. But that should not be the intention of
> the list. It is more made for a community discussion. When you give an
> answer, other people should be able to see that answer and ask more
> questions or possibly challenge your answer. This is how a community
> should work.
>
> Why do you want to deal with individuals?
>
> On Thu, Oct 11, 2012 at 1:56 AM, Jim Graham<james.graham at oracle.com>  wrote:
>> Indeed I prefer it this way as I don't always want to burden the list with
>> my replies.
>>
>> This list gives the option, but "Reply-To-List" lists don't have any
>> convenient way to reply to just the sender...
>>
>>                          ...jim
>>
>>
>> On 10/10/12 12:06 PM, Tom Eugelink wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>>> <sidebar>
>>>>> ps. why doesn't the list set the mailing list as the reply to?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> Grrr. ;-)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> In Thunderbird I have a "reply" and "reply list" button, only for these
>>> mailinglist emails.
>>>
>>> Tom
>>>
>>
>
>
>