Re: reply etiquette

At 14:15 30/09/2004, Philip Hazel wrote:
> On Thu, 30 Sep 2004, Paul Smith wrote:
>
> > I can't think of any logical, legitimate, reason why anyone would want 
> to post
> > to 'ietf-822(_at_)imc(_dot_)org' unless they were a member of the list -
>
> "I haven't got time to participate, but you guys might like to think
> about and discuss this issue that I have come across."
>
> "Someone told me that you guys are discussing an issue that would
> benefit from some statistical information about <something>. Here's a
> reference to some work I did that might be what you want."
Or 'get your viagra here', 'my uncle died in an alien attack in Nigeria, 
please take lots of money from me', or 'look at these pictures I found', or 
even 'linux is better than Windows because...', etc...

Both of your examples are OK, but to stop the other (more likely..) 
examples you'd want to restrict people posting to the list by requiring 
them to subscribe first (or moderating the list), UNLESS your list is 
specifically for people to send to who aren't subscribed (bug lists etc).
Also, in your examples, the person sending the message specifically did not 
want the discussion about his message to go back to him - otherwise he'd 
probably have subscribed.
If I sent a message to a mailing list (with the same sort of nature as the 
ietf-822 one), without subscribing first, I'd *expect* to have my email 
bounced with a message telling me I couldn't send a message without 
subscribing, and telling me how to subscribe if I wanted to. In this sort 
of list I'd be suspicious of people throwing in messages without wanting to 
know about the ensuing discussion - they could be trolling, they could be 
giving false information etc etc.

Paul                            VPOP3 - Internet Email Server/Gateway
support(_at_)pscs(_dot_)co(_dot_)uk                     http://www.pscs.co.uk/