Reply-To (was: piercing corporate)

[bscott at ntisys.com]

On Sat, 7 Feb 2004, at 6:00am, invalid at pizzashack.org wrote:
> I therefore advocate that you not set a reply-to header. 

  Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I set "Reply-To" on my outgoing
messages to this list to "discuss at gnhlug.org" precisely *because* I want
replies to my messages to this list to go to this list.  I *want* all the
discussion to be public.  I almost never want private replies (and on the
rare occasions I do, I ask for them, and set Reply-To accordingly).  The
power of collaboration is essential to Linux, GNHLUG, and, I dare say, most
worthwhile human endeavors.

  All too often, I find private replies on public lists did not need to be
private, and the community loses something by making them private.  Case in
point: The message you sent contained valuable information and nothing I
could see as needing to be "private".  So why send it private?

  So, as far as *I'm* concerned, my headers are correct.  I want replies to
go to <gnhlug at discuss.org>.  That's what Reply-To is for.  I don't ask you
to change yours; please don't ask me to change mine.

> Yes, yes, I realize I should check my headers before I hit the send key
> ...

  Yes, you should.

  You should also change the "Subject" line when hijacking a thread.

  There's also the whole "email address in a public email forum" flamewar
that happened a few months ago.

  I note that you, personally, Derek, seem to advocate netiquette and
community involvement only when it involves no effort on your part.  If it
means *you* need to do more work, then it's okay to ignore it.  That
*REALLY* pisses me off.  Maybe it's just a bad coincidence, but I really
can't help but notice a pattern here.

  I say this mainly because I value your knowledge, insights, and opinions,
on this list and elsewhere, and I would hate to lose them.  If you were just
some net.random, I would just tell you to take a hike.

-- 
Ben Scott <bscott at ntisys.com>
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