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Posted to modperl@perl.apache.org by Stas Bekman <st...@stason.org> on 2003/08/27 01:17:57 UTC

why you should reply to the list

Perrin Harkins wrote:
> On Tue, 2003-08-26 at 18:41, Bruce Tennant wrote:
> 
>>Can we fix the "list" so that when a person replies, it defaults to
>>the list address and not the posters?
> 
> 
> Read the following thread:
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=apache-modperl&m=99790842623617&w=2

Please advise on another way to tell people to respond to the list and not in 
private. I used to receive much less off-list replies earlier.

Normally when people followup to my reply in private, I don't know what to do 
about it. I simply bounce it back to the list if it's obvious that the poster 
just didn't know better. However in some cases an off-list email means that 
the poster did *not* want it to be seen in public, so I end up asking the 
person whether she ment to send it to the list in first place, but hit 'Reply' 
instead of 'Reply-All'. So we have another 2 emails going back in forth. So 
instead of generating 1 email we end up with 4 in the best case. Now multiply 
by the number of misdirected emails.

Moreover when people correct their mistake they usually end up forwarding the 
email, they sent to off-list, losing all reference email ids, which breaks the 
thread in the archives.

Purhaps adding a list signature:

Always post followups back to the list!

will help, but who reads that.

__________________________________________________________________
Stas Bekman            JAm_pH ------> Just Another mod_perl Hacker
http://stason.org/     mod_perl Guide ---> http://perl.apache.org
mailto:stas@stason.org http://use.perl.org http://apacheweek.com
http://modperlbook.org http://apache.org   http://ticketmaster.com



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Re: why you should reply to the list

Posted by Perrin Harkins <pe...@elem.com>.
Stas Bekman wrote:
> Please advise on another way to tell people to respond to the list and 
> not in private. I used to receive much less off-list replies earlier.

I actually couldn't care less what the reply-to header for the list is, 
since I will just "reply all" as I always have.  I posted the reference 
to the earlier thread because anyone who wants to bring it up should at 
least be aware of what was said in previous discussions.

- Perrin



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Re: why you should reply to the list

Posted by Bruce Tennant <bl...@yahoo.com>.
Ok compare:
 
== w/Reply-To "munged"
 
1) Left click on from line, copy
2) hit reply, replace list email w/sender email
3) type away
 
== w/out reply to, reply to whole list
1) hit reply, DOH! reply all
2) cut out senders email address or he gets duplicate mails (YES I DONT WANT TO READ IT TWICE!)
3) type away
 
Seems the "common" case is easier in the "munged" way, and MUCH harder in the normal way.  It's a mail list, mail lists aren't normal email, reply-to munging is not as bad as that article made it out to be.
 
I'll shut-up now since I started this thread (and have been reading duplicate if you didn't notice).


"Randal L. Schwartz" <me...@stonehenge.com> wrote:
>>>>> "Douglas" == Douglas Theobald writes:

Douglas> All the other lists automatically put the list email address
Douglas> in the Reply-to: of the distributed posts, thus making
Douglas> replying to the list the default. Couldn't that be changed
Douglas> for modperl?

"Eeek. Please make the bad man stop, mommy!"

-- 
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Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
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Re: why you should reply to the list

Posted by "Randal L. Schwartz" <me...@stonehenge.com>.
>>>>> "Douglas" == Douglas Theobald <th...@colorado.edu> writes:

Douglas>  All the other lists automatically put the list email address
Douglas> in the Reply-to: of the distributed posts, thus making
Douglas> replying to the list the default. Couldn't that be changed
Douglas> for modperl?

"Eeek.  Please make the bad man stop, mommy!"

-- 
Randal L. Schwartz - Stonehenge Consulting Services, Inc. - +1 503 777 0095
<me...@stonehenge.com> <URL:http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/>
Perl/Unix/security consulting, Technical writing, Comedy, etc. etc.
See PerlTraining.Stonehenge.com for onsite and open-enrollment Perl training!


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Re: why you should reply to the list

Posted by Douglas Theobald <th...@colorado.edu>.
On 8/26/03 10:00 PM, "Stas Bekman" <st...@stason.org> a écrit :

> Douglas Theobald wrote:
> 
>> I thought this was a strange behavior for the list messages when I realized
>> that I had replied, accidentally, to Stas personally and not the list. I
>> subscribe to six lists, and mod_perl is the *only* one where my email reader
>> automatically replies to the sender and not the list. All the other lists
>> automatically put the list email address in the Reply-to: of the distributed
>> posts, thus making replying to the list the default. Couldn't that be
>> changed for modperl?
> 
> Perrin has already replied to this, as we have discussed this many times in
> the last 7 years:
> http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=apache-modperl&m=99790842623617&w=2

Sorry, I had no idea this was such a fun topic ...

> While there is no consensus on this dispute please remember to use the
> 'Reply-All' function/button when replying to the list. It'll work for other
> lists which use the 'Reply-To' header as well.

Except 'Reply-All' duplicates emails unnecessarily, so currently I have
different methods depending upon which list I'm replying to. C'est la vie.



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Re: why you should reply to the list

Posted by Stas Bekman <st...@stason.org>.
Douglas Theobald wrote:

> I thought this was a strange behavior for the list messages when I realized
> that I had replied, accidentally, to Stas personally and not the list. I
> subscribe to six lists, and mod_perl is the *only* one where my email reader
> automatically replies to the sender and not the list. All the other lists
> automatically put the list email address in the Reply-to: of the distributed
> posts, thus making replying to the list the default. Couldn't that be
> changed for modperl?

Perrin has already replied to this, as we have discussed this many times in 
the last 7 years:
http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=apache-modperl&m=99790842623617&w=2

While there is no consensus on this dispute please remember to use the 
'Reply-All' function/button when replying to the list. It'll work for other 
lists which use the 'Reply-To' header as well.

__________________________________________________________________
Stas Bekman            JAm_pH ------> Just Another mod_perl Hacker
http://stason.org/     mod_perl Guide ---> http://perl.apache.org
mailto:stas@stason.org http://use.perl.org http://apacheweek.com
http://modperlbook.org http://apache.org   http://ticketmaster.com



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Re: why you should reply to the list

Posted by Douglas Theobald <th...@colorado.edu>.
On 8/26/03 8:48 PM, "Stas Bekman" <st...@stason.org> a écrit :

> Larry Leszczynski wrote:
>> On Tue, 26 Aug 2003, Stas Bekman wrote:
>> 
>> 
>>> Please advise on another way to tell people to respond to the list and not
>>> in 
>>> private. I used to receive much less off-list replies earlier.
>> 
>> [snip]
>> 
>>> Purhaps adding a list signature:
>>> 
>>> Always post followups back to the list!
>>> 
>>> will help, but who reads that.
>> 
>> Unfortunately I think we've all seen enough "unsubscribe me" emails to
>> know that people don't read the info that is *already* being added to the
>> outgoing mail...
> 
> One can argue that it's not obvious that one has to look at the headers to
> find out the unsubscribe information. Most modern mail-clients hide the
> headers by default. You need to know that you want to look at them.
> 
> I think the new signature that Ask has added last week doesn't leave place for
> such valid excuses ;)
> 
>> Stas, you probably get it worst just because of the volume of mail you
>> send to the list (which we're all grateful for!).  Maybe when you do your
>> mod_perl list reading you should just configure your outgoing email with:
>>    Reply-to: modperl@perl.apache.org
>> Kind of a pain for you though...
> 
> Hmm, that's an idea. Won't the list software strip this header? I shell try it
> now. If it works I should just figure out how to add an outgoing mozilla-mail
> filter to push this header, if the email is sent to the modperl list.

I thought this was a strange behavior for the list messages when I realized
that I had replied, accidentally, to Stas personally and not the list. I
subscribe to six lists, and mod_perl is the *only* one where my email reader
automatically replies to the sender and not the list. All the other lists
automatically put the list email address in the Reply-to: of the distributed
posts, thus making replying to the list the default. Couldn't that be
changed for modperl?

Douglas




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Re: why you should reply to the list

Posted by Stas Bekman <st...@stason.org>.
Larry Leszczynski wrote:
> On Tue, 26 Aug 2003, Stas Bekman wrote:
> 
> 
>>Please advise on another way to tell people to respond to the list and not in 
>>private. I used to receive much less off-list replies earlier.
> 
> [snip]
> 
>>Purhaps adding a list signature:
>>
>>Always post followups back to the list!
>>
>>will help, but who reads that.
> 
> 
> Unfortunately I think we've all seen enough "unsubscribe me" emails to
> know that people don't read the info that is *already* being added to the
> outgoing mail...

One can argue that it's not obvious that one has to look at the headers to 
find out the unsubscribe information. Most modern mail-clients hide the 
headers by default. You need to know that you want to look at them.

I think the new signature that Ask has added last week doesn't leave place for 
such valid excuses ;)

> Stas, you probably get it worst just because of the volume of mail you
> send to the list (which we're all grateful for!).  Maybe when you do your
> mod_perl list reading you should just configure your outgoing email with:
>    Reply-to: modperl@perl.apache.org
> Kind of a pain for you though...

Hmm, that's an idea. Won't the list software strip this header? I shell try it 
now. If it works I should just figure out how to add an outgoing mozilla-mail 
filter to push this header, if the email is sent to the modperl list.

Thanks for the idea, Larry!

__________________________________________________________________
Stas Bekman            JAm_pH ------> Just Another mod_perl Hacker
http://stason.org/     mod_perl Guide ---> http://perl.apache.org
mailto:stas@stason.org http://use.perl.org http://apacheweek.com
http://modperlbook.org http://apache.org   http://ticketmaster.com



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Re: why you should reply to the list

Posted by Larry Leszczynski <la...@furph.com>.
On Tue, 26 Aug 2003, Stas Bekman wrote:

> Please advise on another way to tell people to respond to the list and not in 
> private. I used to receive much less off-list replies earlier.
[snip]
> Purhaps adding a list signature:
> 
> Always post followups back to the list!
> 
> will help, but who reads that.

Unfortunately I think we've all seen enough "unsubscribe me" emails to
know that people don't read the info that is *already* being added to the
outgoing mail...

Stas, you probably get it worst just because of the volume of mail you
send to the list (which we're all grateful for!).  Maybe when you do your
mod_perl list reading you should just configure your outgoing email with:
   Reply-to: modperl@perl.apache.org
Kind of a pain for you though...


Larry Leszczynski
larryl@furph.com



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