List header cancer (was: Lawsuits, Red Hat, yummy....)

[Bill McGonigle]

On Oct 17, 2007, at 22:47, Ben Scott wrote:

>   List Header Cancer: The disease where the "Cc" header in a thread
> grows larger and larger as everyone who has ever participated in the
> thread gets added to the "Cc" list by people who blindly hit "Reply
> All" for every message they send.

Separate issue.   Agreed, people should be conscientious about who  
they send messages to.  Somebody mentioned on a previous thread that  
some MUA's have a reply-to-list feature.  If one uses a MUA without  
this support, replying to all and not trimming cc:'s appropriately is  
just rude/lazy.

>> I would have responded earlier but my gnhlug-only mail is filtered
>> (if I'm in the header it goes right to my inbox), so I didn't see it
>
>   So use a mail program that supports thread watching.

Any suggestions (other than mutt)?  Does Thunderbird do this now?  As  
a matter of list policy one would want to support best practices as  
can be implemented by commonly used MUA's.

>   Or just skip
> mail when you're busy -- I frequently have to do that.  It's not
> everyone else's problem you're too bus to read the list.

You don't see a middle ground between reading/sorting all list  
traffic and replying to messages replying to me?  Without header  
support, finding this messages requires reading messages.  This is  
why headers are helpful, so the machines can do this work.

>   And the
> "Send it to me too" solution doesn't work either, since you'll miss
> traffic from other people who are replying.

Not if replies to a person go to a person.  Granted, one may miss  
additional opportunities to participate in a thread.

>   Yes, it is your
> obligation to read the threads you participate in.  That's what makes
> this a discussion list instead of a blog.  :-)

You'll note that my goal was to decrease the latency between replies,  
not abdicate responsibility to do so.  I don't think we have a list  
policy that members must read messages within a specific period of  
time.  But, letting people know that you replied to a message they  
sent is just a matter of being polite, IMHO.

-Bill

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