2009/10/14 Twayne <[email protected]>
Hi Harold,
I "paricipate" via the gmane.org newsgroup. Please keep that in mind as
you read my questions.
I am only subscribed to this newsgroup server and not to the actual
list, and then only a few select newsgroups. I prefer to choose my
querants as opposed to receiving them en-masse, so to speak.
Your message *seems* to come from an e-mail address (
[email protected]) that *is* subscribed to this *list* (
[email protected]). I don't know why this should be the case, given
that you say you're not subscribed to it.
You personally often "forward" to "unsubscribed OP" which is a great,
unselfish thing to do. I see it happen quite often and I see other
places where I suspect it should happen. Perhaps you could square us
away on this one more time:
-- Example: Josh Swan posted about "Wrong software downloaded" on
10-12-09.
How did you know he was unsubscribed?
The trigger is as follows. The "querant" (not in my dictionary, but
probably should be as it's rather useful) is *not* subscribed [to this
list] *if and only if* the mail message contains the header
Delivered-To: moderator for [email protected]
If the message does not contain this header then the sender is subscribed.
In other words, messages from non-subscribed querants, and only those
messages, are delivered to the moderator who then may or may not release
them to the list.
As far as I know there is no other reliable indicator.
I read this list in two different ways - either via Thunderbird or via
Firefox. Thunderbird allows me to set up a filter to highlight messages
having the relevant header so it's easy to identify them. Firefox doesn't
but Gmail (which is what I use) lets one examine the headers manually. So
using Thunderbrd is less effort although the copy/paste (see below) is the
same for both.
Where do you forward the response to? Is it [email protected]?
I copy the querant's e-mail address from his/her message, hit the Reply
button (so my reply is going to be sent to [email protected]) and then
paste the copied e-mail address into the To: or cc: list of my reply. Thus
my reply is sent to the list *and* to the querant's personal e-mail
address. In this way (a) the querant is sure to get a copy and (b) other
list readers can easily see that s/he will.
When you are so courteous as to forward for a poster, perhaps if
you mentioned the address you forwarded to in your post a few times,
many of us might start to catch on and begin to do the same thing.
Flattery will get you anywhere ;-)
-- I thought that would only have to be done for the "moderated" tags
on the posts but apparently not; what exactly IS the trigger to realize
the querant isn't going to see the response?
I've actually taken a pass on some posts I could have responded to where
no one else did, because I knew the person wouldn't get the post, so I
just let it go by. That's not really a very good attitude when the
purpose is to assist people who need it.
Also, in your sig, you have "Please reply *only* to
[email protected]". Is that meant for when resonding to YOU? Or
what? Is the gmane.org the wrong place to address you?
My sig is merely there to prevent people replying to my personal e-mail
address rather than to the list. I use a special e-mail address for this
list and any messages addressed to it personally just get junked; I never
even examine them.
I'm not an expert on Gmane but I *think* it merely takes e-mail messages
from the list and transforms them into Usenet format (NNTP*) where they can
be read via a News reader. In the other direction, Gmane takes your Usenet
posts, transforms them into e-mail format (SMTP*) and sends them to this
list. Thus, when you participate via Gmane, your e-mail address *must* be
subscribed to Gmane but doesn't have to be subscribed to anything else.
* SMTP and NNTP are specifications (RFCs) that define how messages are
formatted - headers, legal character sets and so on - as well as the port
numbers and "conversational protocols" over which data transmission takes
place. They are very different animals although many programs (Thunderbird,
Outlook Express, ...) support both within the one framework and with largely
the same UI.
I'm confused!
HTH :-)
Regards,
Twayne`
--
Harold Fuchs
London, England
Please reply *only* to [email protected]
