How to answer questions from non-members
Maxim Yurkin
I have recently realized a rather unexpected and "frustrating" feature of Google groups. If a non-member sends an e-mail
adda-d...@googlegroups.com and a member replies using the default reply button (either in e-mail client or on the
website), the reply goes to the whole group but not to the original author. The author then has no way to see the answer
(or at least be notified of it) except browsing to the group's web site. This mostly presents a problem for those, who
found the group's e-mail address in e.g. the manual and have never visited the group's website - they naturally expect
to get the answer back through the e-mail.
I have just added a warning about such behavior to the welcome message on the group's website, but it will not help
e-mail-only users. I have also notified the authors of recent questions (posted this year). Additionally, we need some
general means to alleviate this problem.
I propose the following:
1) When answering (for the first time) the question of a non-member use "reply to all" button in e-mail clients, so that
the answer will go both to the original author and to the group. Checking whether a particular user (e-mail) is a member
or not may be kind of troublesome, so I advice to include a copy whenever in doubts.
2) Add some explanatory text to the message, explaining the original author how to continue discussion. For example:
=======================
P.S. This answer has been forwarded to your e-mail address for your convenience. However, if you want to continue the
discussion please reply to the group's e-mail. You are also advised to check the corresponding discussion thread at
http://groups.google.com/group/adda-discuss/topic and/or subscribe to it to receive automatic notifications, since other
answers/comments will not be necessarily forwarded to your e-mail.
=======================
Please let me know what you think about my proposal, or maybe propose better ideas. Comments from those, who suffered
from this problem in the past, are especially welcome.
Maxim.