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Bill Jonas wrote:
>
> On Mon, Apr 16, 2001 at 04:44:05PM -0400, Dave Turner wrote:
> > I like it, actually. Mostly, I've just been trained that reply goes to
> > the list - and it is, in my experience, the most common case.
>
> http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html
>
> Just today, I found out about Mutt's ignore_list_reply_to setting, which I
> immediately set. God bless America.
>
> --
> Bill Jonas * bill@billjonas.com * http://www.billjonas.com/
I've read it before, and I disagree strongly. Briefly:
Minimal munging assumes that list admins are idiots.
This feature does add something: convinience - it optimizes for the
common case.
It doesn't break things - you have your ignore_list_reply_to, so nothing
is broken.
It doesn't actually remove choices.
I have never experienced the "Can't Find My Way Back Home" problem, nor
heard of it. Also, it's easily fixable - just move the old reply-to to
x-old-reply-to (or whatever)
On an un-munged list, when I hit "reply to all" (and don't edit - if I
do edit, it's just as easy either way), I end up sending two messages:
one to the list, and one to the original sender. The original author
may then begin to reply to the personal message, only to realize that
she wants her message to go to the list - so she has to hunt down the
list address and go back and type it in. If the common case is off-list
replies (such as in a job-posting list), that won't happen too often.
But, in a discussion list, that's not the common case.
"Principle of Least Surprise" is based on what you expect - most lists
these days uses munged headers, so it's what I expect. I have never
made an error with munged headers, while I have made numerous mistakes
with unmunged headers.
The "Principle of Least Damage" assumes that you will be sending e-mail
about your sex life or other deeply private stuff - that doesn't happen
on phl.pm-l.
Finally, it's bad because it discourages on-list replies. Lists that
use this policy, in my experience, are more likely to go dead,
discouraging newbies and regulars alike. In a list that's based around
planning events and common chatter, it's especially pointless.
--
-Dave Turner Stalk me: (215)-545-2859
My game of Advocacy is different from ordinary games of Advocacy in
that players vote for the reason they think will get the median
number of votes. This is better than standard advocacy because...
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