On Sat, Aug 30, 2014 at 8:40 AM, Joel Goldstick <joel.goldst...@gmail.com> wrote: > On this list I use reply all (using gmail) because reply takes the > first recipient, which is the poster. I am on another list where this > isn't true.
Yes, and I've been on a few lists that have gone through the discussion of why it should be one way or the other way. The biggest problem is that Gmail doesn't have a "reply to list" option to select as the default. (Nor do a number of other mail clients; I'm not knocking Gmail specifically here, but it's what several of us use, so it's the example I'm discussing.) In the absence of such, there are basically four possibilities: 1) The list can be set to send replies to the list 1a) You might want to send to the list 1b) You might want to send a private message 2) The list can be set to send replies to the original poster 2a) As above 2b) As above 3) The list can also be set to send replies somewhere else, but that's not germane to this discussion. In case 1a, it's easy. Everything happens as it should. In case 2b, it's also easy. You hit reply, it goes to the original poster, like you want. So how do we handle the cross cases? Case 2a is what python-list and Savoynet are set to. You want to reply to the list? Hit Reply-All and then remove the original poster, or hit Reply and change the destination. (That's a great option if you have only one list. It's a terrible option if you have as many lists as I have, because you'll change the destination wrongly.) Case 1b is how I set up the Gilbert & Sullivan Society Committee mailing list. It's meant primarily to be for discussions amongst a small group (the committee consists of maybe a dozen people), and most of them are not particularly technically adept (the G&S Society is an artistic society (we perform light opera/operetta), so most of the people who run it are artistic people, although we have for example a treasurer who's an accountant); sending replies to the list makes the most sense, and keeps the discussion where it needs to be. But how do you go about sending a private reply? It's unusual on the committee list, but it does happen; and you have to hit Reply or Reply-All, then delete the list's name and manually copy and paste (or retype!) the sender's address. This is VERY error-prone. It's really easy to accidentally tell the list what was supposed to be private. The bigger the list, the more common private replies will tend to be. I would advise huge lists of unrelated people (python-list, Savoynet, any general interest group) to have replies go to the poster, and small lists of closely related people can consider having replies to the list by default. But of course, there'll be exceptions either way. ChrisA -- https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
