Re: mailing list misconfiguration

[Kevin Vermeer <reemrevnivek@...>]

> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 3:10 AM, GrayFace <sergroj@mail.ru> wrote:
> > You can use reply-to-all and remove the mailing list from recipients I
> > think.

That doesn't work for me. (Email client: gmail web interface)

2010/8/30 Miles Bader <miles@gnu.org>
> That doesn't work if the sender's reply-to header has been overwritten
> by the mailing list manager.  It's not a case of "inconvenience" then,
> it's a case of "information loss."

You're right that reply-to-all doesn't include the sender's email by
default.  However, it's incorrect to state that information has been
lost.   The sender is defined by the From: field, which is not
necessarily equal to the Reply-To: field - otherwise the latter would
have no reason to exist.  This is why you were able to send your
message to both GrayFace and the list.

It may be slightly more awkward to copy the email address from the
From: field, but this ugliness is by design (Much like _ENV and _G).
The list nettiquite page says, "Please be careful when replying to a
message posted to the list, because your reply will be sent to the
whole list, instead of just to the author."  The goal is to keep
useful information on the list, and to avoid having private dialogs,
which only benefit one person.  Inconvenience, in this case, is a good
thing.

If a message must be taken off-list, it is a matter of five seconds to
copy-paste the sender's address.  This should (and currently does)
require a conscious act, rather than an automatic click of the "Reply"
or "Reply to all" button.

The purpose of the Reply-To field is to allow the sender to decide
where replies should go by default.  It does not need to be their
sending address.  I support the current list configuration.