In <4133281A(_dot_)7040104(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu> Keith Moore
<moore(_at_)cs(_dot_)utk(_dot_)edu> writes:
D. J. Bernstein wrote:
I don't want _replies_ to go to ietf-822(_at_)imc(_dot_)org(_dot_) I want
_followups_
to go to ietf-822(_at_)imc(_dot_)org(_dot_)
"followup" is a Usenet term. Usenet has two different kinds of
addresses - email addresses and newsgroups.
But mail also has two different kinds of addresses or, to put it another
way, mailing lists certainly need two kinds of addresses:
1. From: To: Cc: Bcc: etc.
2. List-Post: Mail-Followup-To: (which not all lists, including this one,
provide :-( )
MUAs then need some form of command for "Reply-To-List", and the obvious
name for that command is "Followup" (or the single letter 'F'). It was
clearly such a facility that Dan was referring to.
Responses to the author's
email address are replies; responses to newsgroups are followups.
And responses to mailing lists should be followups too.
Email
does not have visibly different kinds of addresses and does make a
distinction between replies and followups.
And that is exactly the root of the problem, which needs to be fixed.
Email UAs have "reply" and
"reply to all" or similar. For several reasons including both protocol
differences and cultural differences between email and Usenet, email's
"reply to all" and Usenet's "followup" are not quite the same thing.
And I don't see evidence of any desire among users to make email more
like Usenet. (actually I see plenty of evidence to the contrary. but I
digress.)
On the contrary, in the case of mailing lists I see evidence of this
desire all the time. It is just not clear whether the "proper" way to
respond to a mailing list is "Reply" or "Reply-To-All", since both of them
usually do the Wrong Thing (my usual practice is to do Reply-To-All and
then weed out all the addresses I d not want). The alternative is for list
expanders to force Reply-To: list-address, which I much prefer, but which
usually leads to flame wars when proposed on a list.
Personally, I find it extremely annoying to receive personal replies to
messages I post to a mailing list to which I am already subscribed.
--
Charles H. Lindsey ---------At Home, doing my own thing------------------------
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