On Tue, Feb 10, 2004 at 05:33:54PM -0600, Bryan Newell wrote: > I watched this list for about a month after joining before I posted my first > message, trying to get a feel for the local etiquette. Exactly the right thing to do in any new environment. Observe the 'locals' ;-) > I have a few questions, if anyone cares to share an opinion: > > 1. When I reply to a message on this list, should I be replying to both the > user and the mailing list, or just the list? I realize when I only want to > reply to the user, but I'm talking about when I want my reply posted back to > the list. I see that the local trend swings the other way, so I'll speak up to point out that it is a divisive issue as well. In _general_ on Internet mailing lists, the appropriate action is to reply to both. There are several reasons for that. The first is that many mail clients highlight or sort mail that is To: you differently from mail that you've effectively been Bcc'd: on. Personally, if someone replies to something I wrote - I like to be aware of it, so I can check and see if they actually are asking something that I owe a response to. The second reason is that for lists with a large number of subscribers, the copy that goes via the list can be significantly slower than the direct copy - that can facilitate a quicker exchange between participants in a discussion. The third reason is that there is no standard way for users to express their preference. Since it's impractical to remember (if they've ever said) which way every subscriber prefers replies sent, it best to settle on a single universal practice. Deleting the occassional duplicate mail isn't tough - reading every list message to see if someone asked you a question, is. (One suggested, but not widely implemented way to express your preference is the Mail-Followup-To: header. http://cr.yp.to/proto/replyto.html ) The fourth reason is that if duplicate replies _really_ bother someone enough, they can make their mail software eliminate them. That all said - it looks like the vocal users here have the opposite preference. -- David Maxwell, david at vex.net|david at maxwell.net --> Any sufficiently advanced Common Sense will seem like magic... - me