----- Original Message -----
From: "Bruce Lilly" <blilly(_at_)erols(_dot_)com>
or give any guidance about what to do if the
replier wants to change the default.
Again, the concept of a "default" is an rMUA issue, not a
characteristic of a Reply-To field.
I disagree. From a technical standpoint, this is a sound definition of
a default reply address.
Again, we need to take into again the the 1:1 vs 1:many concept we
are dealing with here. The MUA is not "designed" to handle this concept
of how the original intention of the message list "holder" is distributing
the mail.
This is quite evident when you shift the thinking to a MUA who understands
groupware conferences and/or an ONLINE based MUA, like a Newsgroup Reader
where the default is a "reply to group" and the "reply to sender" is a
secondary
option.
This is clearly becoming a "close mindset" think - open it up bruce.
Because I'm looking at how to make email more effective, one of the
things I'm concerned about is the rarity of conscious choice when
replying to emails. So I'm wondering if there are ways that MUAs can
be improved to encourage conscious choices without being too annoying.
One rather obvious way would be to present multiple choices
equally (and correctly labeled) rather than a default (with or
without other alternatives which are less accessible).
Ok, but why? Most MUA designers would prefer to a have a "concise"
offering to the user for that the intentions of the backend is. If the user
wants to go offline, those are secondary options.
Options are always to have, but when it comes to a default, the user should
be presented with a clearly understanding of how to response to a list.
So the issue seems to be coming down to two things:
- For legacy systems, how do you best offer a default for a mailing list?
- For new systems, what is needed to offer all the possible response options
that includes considerations for a mailing list?
You can't saying the backend has nothing to do with it. I disagree.
It is very much part of the picture.
The proof?
I already showed how. A list server can fix the reply-to address to the
list address once it takes responsibility for the new distribution as a
"List User" entity.
The issue with this?
For the legacy MUA, the secondary option to "reply direct" is no longer an
easy option.
---
Hector Santos, CTO
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