At 14:50 12/09/2013 -0500, Evan Driscoll wrote:
Now, that being said and because I'm sure no one cares, IMO the way the Lilypond list is set up ("reply" goes to the sender) is *absolutely* the correct way to run a mailing list, and the alternative is completely maddening.
It's not just your opinion: mailing list processors have no business inserting a Reply-To: header, which is instead the sole domain of the message's author. RFC 2822 appears to require this: "When the 'Reply-To:' field is present, it indicates the mailbox(es) to which the *author* of the message suggests that replies be sent" (my emphasis). The author of a message, of course, is not the list.
What action is *common* is only one of the two things that should be considered when assigning a default. Also should be considered is how damaging the other choice is. Replying to the list when you want to respond just to the sender has the potential to be a much more "damaging" action than replying to just the sender when you want to send to the list.
Exactly: the right way fails safe. A message intended to be public may get sent privately by mistake - a minor inconvenience that can easily be remedied by sending the message again correctly. The use of a Reply-To: header directed to a list risks messages intended to be private being sent publicly - a unfortunate consequence that simply cannot be undone.
This mailing list is configured unusually but properly. Brian Barker _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
