mail to individuals

[Samuel Thurston, III]

Hi Odd, you seem to be confused.

On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 12:20 PM, Odd <iodine at runbox.no> wrote:
> Samuel Thurston, III wrote:
>> On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 1:09 PM, Stephen <stephen_o at rogers.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I believe it is a problem with the mail settings on the sounder list all
>>> though they deny it.
>>
>> If you read the body of reference work on the subject, it is actually
>> the *other* lists that have a problem with the settings.
>
> Not really. The overwhelming majority of lists have chosen
> the sane option. Your "body of reference" means absolutely
> nothing in the face of logic.

Overwhelming majority... where are you collecting these statistics?

The "sane option" as you call it is usually chosen on lists heavily
trafficked by people who don't use proper RFC-compliant email clients,
to reduce confusion and cut down on the number of threads dedicated to
"why is the list configured wrong" when in fact the proper question is
"why is my email client broken, and why do i continue to use it even
though it is".  The use of the "reply to list" option and the
avoidance of crappy non-compliant clients are both recommended on the
ubuntu maling list etiquette guidlines:

http://www.ubuntu.com/support/community/mailinglists/etiquette

"When replying to messages, use your email client's Reply To List
function, rather than "Reply" or "Reply To All". This is Ctrl + L in
Evolution (Ubuntu's default email client), and Shift + L in Kmail
(Kubuntu's default email client) and in mutt (a popular console email
client). If your email client does not have this function, ask for it
to be added! "



>
>> Reply should reply to sender.
>
> No. That defeats the whole purpose of a mailing list.

IF clients have the "reply to list" button or option, as they should
to conform to the RFC's, it does absolutely no such thing.

>
>> Your client should have a reply to list option. If it doesn't your
>> beef is with the email client, not the list manager who is conforming
>> to standards.
>
> Windows is the standard in desktop operating systems. So we
> should all use it, according to your thinking.

This is the most perverse possible twisting of my words.  By your
reasoning, the list should throw out all RFC compatibility and send
outlook-formatted RTF emails, because most people use a mail client
that supports it (outlook express).

I agree the situation sucks.  I repeat: direct your complaint to the
vendor of your  non-RFC compliant email client.  Lets try to get more
things working the right way instead of breaking more things to
accommodate other broken things... like they do in the windows world.