Dragaera

Straw Poll about "Reply-to" (was: Damiano's Lute)

Thu Nov 28 19:29:29 PST 2002

Thomas Yan <tyan at twcny.rr.com> writes:

> 1. Have you accidentally sent a private reply instead of posting to
>    the list?

Yes, damn it!

> 1'. Have you accidentally posted to the list instead of sending a
>     private reply?

I don't think so.

> 2. Have you received an accidental private reply that was meant to go
>    to the list?

Yes, many times.

> 3. When you get a message that was sent to you instead of the list, do
>    you feel obliged to query the sender to ask him or her if it was
>    meant to private instead of to the list?

Yes, just about every time I receive a private follow-up.  I also send
back the entire reply, in case the sender wants to post it to the list
but no longer has a copy of his or her message.

> 4. Has the Reply-To behavior of this list caused you confusion when
>    posting to other mailing lists, perhaps even causing you to
>    accidentally send a private e-mail instead of posting or vice
>    versa?

Yes!  Well, sort of.  I think I've gone both directions on the RASFW
and/or RASFF newsgroups.  Grr.

> 5. How do you feel about the Reply-To behavior of this list?

I dislike it, but not enormously so (e.g. top-posting annoys me rather
more).  Now that I'm used to the software I switched to, I don't make
the mistake myself very often, but I often receive private replies
that were meant to be public.  And at least once, a private reply
really was intended to be private, but I had to ask to be sure.  Grr!

(Note: This makes me mildly annoyed at DDB, not the poor suckers who
accidentally send private e-mail to me.)

- tky