[Community-Discuss] List reply-to address

Owen DeLong owen at delong.com
Tue May 30 13:43:16 UTC 2017


I strongly support Alan’s position. (Sent deliberately to the list using reply-all).

Owen

> On Sep 30, 2016, at 6:26 PM, Alan Barrett <alan.barrett at afrinic.net> wrote:
> 
> On 30 Sep 2016, at 16:55, Seun Ojedeji <seun.ojedeji at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 30 Sep 2016 13:25, "Alan Barrett" <alan.barrett at afrinic.net> wrote:
>>> and I have asked for the mailing list configuration to be changed so that it does not automatically add a “Reply-To” header in future.
>> SO: I will suggest not to modify the list settings. Most of the time people hit reply and their mails goes as PM. I think it's absolutely fine for a community list like this to have a default response to the community. One can always do a formal withdrawal OR be mindful of who he/she is replying to before hitting the send button.
> 
> There is no good answer, but I seek to minimise the harm done by mistakes.
> 
> If the list does not add a reply-to address then there are two kind of mistakes, neither of them very serious:
> 1. Things that were intended as list replies are accidentally sent as personal replies.  trivial problem; they can be re-sent.
> 2. Things intended as list replies accidentally accumulate a long list of cc: addresses.  Minor problem; the people in the CC list get multiple copies of messages.
> 
> If the list does add a reply-to address, then there is one kind of very serous mistake:
> 3. Things that were intended as personal replies accidentally get sent to the list.  This is potentially a huge problem, as confidential information can be made public.
> 
> Therefore, to minimise the harm done by mistakes, the list should not add a reply-to address to messages.
> 
> I realise that this is debatable, but that’s my position.
> 
> Alan Barrett
> 
> 
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