Reply-To Preservation Considered Harmful (was: Re: [NCLUG] users only)

[Sean Reifschneider]

First off, I'd like to dispell the myth that switching it to be "reply to
sender" will help prevent "private messages" from being sent to the list.
Because people get used to pressing "g" when replying to all messages, it
still happens.  This isn't some theory of mine, it's something I've
personally observed in action.

It boils down to this: What is the most frequent action?  I think it's
clear that the majority of the time, people want to reply to the list...
So, changing the default to not match that is going to mean that more
people are sending private replies that should be public, than people are
sending public replies that should be private.  The numbers are working
against us.

I have a problem with the stated policy being that replies to messages on
NCLUG be to the sender.  I get enough private replies to posts on various
LUG lists as it is, here's why I believe that private replies to public
discussion are a dis-service:

   It deprives the sender of other valuable input.  Rarely does one person
   have all the answers.  Outside input is a valuable thing.

   It turns "community support" into "private support".  I try to
   participate on mailing lists and in the various LUGS and the open source
   community in general because the things I'm doing can help many others.
   One-on-one private support doesn't scale well, there are more newbies
   than experts...

   It deprives other people having the same problem from possible
   solutions.  I frequently search on google for problems I'm having, and
   I've found BLUG comes up amazingly frequently with the answers to my
   problems.

Often, people can be shy about asking questions in a public forum.  That's
a good percentage of the private responses I've gotten to my LUG messages.
The other one is "I saw this thread you posted in a year or 3 ago, and you
sounded like you knew what you were doing.  Did you find a solution?"
Usually these are about things that I haven't thought about in a very long
time, and all I know is that if I had found a solution I would have likely
posted about it to the list...

So, apparently there is a meme that reply-to munging is bad.  I definitely
do not agree.

Sean
-- 
 Unix actually IS user friendly -- it's just very picky about whom it
 calls its friend.
Sean Reifschneider, Inimitably Superfluous <jafo at tummy.com>
tummy.com - Linux Consulting since 1995. Qmail, KRUD, Firewalls, Python