Hi Mattias,
At 07:51 20-10-2008, Matthias Schmidt wrote:
sorry for asking, but recently I got some really inappropriate mails
from some list members.
Is this normal on this list? Has the style of this list changed recently
without "normal" members being notified?
No, it's not normal. Matt Kettler posted a message on behalf of the
SpamAssassin Project Management Committee (PMC) about the policy for
this mailing list. It's the PMC that gets to decide about the style
of the mailing list.
Obviously some people don't get the sense of sending CCs to posters nor
do they understand how a mailing list works.
In this reply, I have a Cc to the mailing list. :-) Now, we could
debate about whether that is appropriate or not given that you are a
subscriber to the mailing list and you will surely be reading this
message through it. Think of the Cc as "for your information". I
won't get into the details on how someone reads the mailing list as
it's accessible through several protocols.
Each mailing list has a different style. If there is no published
policy, you have to lurk for some time to understand what the style
is. The usual subjects of contention, in no particular order, are:
1. HTML formatted messages
2. Thread hijacking
3. Top-posting
4. Reply-To header
5. Cc
The last item can addressed by dropping duplicate messages with
procmail or your favorite mail filter. If the person replying
doesn't have that option, he/she will have to edit the message
headers on sending the reply. Some people who receive a lot or
replies might prefer not to receive a Cc (duplicate) as they already
read the message through the mailing list.
The Reply-To header is more of a matter of choice. It allows the
sender to set a preference for where the reply should go to. It can
also be used to avoid being sent a Cc.
Items 2 to 5 are mainly due to the lack of functionality in the MUA
(mail client). The subjects of contention can also be attributed to
a lack of knowledge about email etiquette.
Regards,
-sm
