OTS's google group reply-to settings

[interrupt0x00]

I've noticed that the reply-to from this group is the message sender's
and that some other google groups seem to have a reply-to set as the
groups's address.

on a number of occasions I've accidentally sent direct direct replies,
and I've received a number of misdirected direct replies..

I don't know much about google groups, is reply-to a setting option?
can it be changed? should it be changed?

[Bart Massey]

It is generally considered best practice in the email list
community to send list messages without a Reply-To-group
header. Among other things, it is preferable to have the
accident you've experienced rather than the one where you
accidentally send something to the whole list that was
intended as a direct reply. :-)

I normally format my responses as a direct-reply with a cc
to the group, as here.

Bart

[interrupt 0x00]

is this"best practice" policy posted somewhere? 

could it be?

My personal preference for a _public_ forum is to have a _public_ policy, on a "private" group I would expect something different..

anybody else have a preference?

I can definitely live with this policy, but it's been a issue for me so I thought I'd ring it up..

[Bart Massey]

I'd have to Google for a reference; I'm sure you can do
likewise.

I'm not sure what's "not public" about the current setup.
As I said, it's primarily there to prevent public
embarrassment. Other reasons that automatically adding a
Reply-To header are a bad idea, for the record:

* It normally makes it impossible for someone to put their
own personal Reply-To header on a list message when they
need to. The list server could refuse to substitute its
own, but this leads to some horrible user traps.

* Mail user agents generally ignore the from address in
favor of the Reply-To address when the latter is
supplied. This makes it hard to compose a private
reply to these messages when one desires to.

Happy to discuss it here, but I'm pretty sure we've got the
right default.

Bart

[interrupt0x00]

I want to thank you all for correcting me, I've never experienced that
reply to all error, but I was seeming to get the opposite only on this
list...

maybe the public/private thing might be clearer if I call "private" -
"external"?

or maybe if I call it "failing open" rather than "failing closed"

as an _open_ tech space I wold prefer it to "fail open"; it's very
possible that that is just me...

------------------

Oops, I'm just about to do it myself, again... better change that
before I hit send of only randy will get this, what I know must be a
"spellbinding" reply ;-)

I feel so lame...

On Feb 8, 1:55 pm, Bart Massey <b...@po8.org> wrote:
> I'd have to Google for a reference; I'm sure you can do
> likewise.
>
> I'm not sure what's "not public" about the current setup.
> As I said, it's primarily there to prevent public
> embarrassment.  Other reasons that automatically adding a
> Reply-To header are a bad idea, for the record:
>
>   * It normally makes it impossible for someone to put their
>     own personal Reply-To header on a list message when they
>     need to.  The list server could refuse to substitute its
>     own, but this leads to some horrible user traps.
>
>   * Mail user agents generally ignore the from address in
>     favor of the Reply-To address when the latter is
>     supplied.   This makes it hard to compose a private
>     reply to these messages when one desires to.
>
> Happy to discuss it here, but I'm pretty sure we've got the
> right default.
>
>         Bart
>

[Wm Leler]

I purposely have the OTS group set up this way.

I have it set up for modern email clients. All modern email clients that I know of are set up so that if you do a simple "reply" to a message from a mailing list, it will go to the specific user who sent the message, but if you do a "reply all" it will go to the user and the entire group. Likewise, if you read the message in the group website, there are links that allow you to "reply to author" (which goes just to the sender of the message), and "reply" (which goes to everyone in the group).

So the way I have it set up is the most flexible and easy to use. If your mail client isn't with the program and you are having trouble remembering which is which, I would suggest that you interact with the OTS mailing list via the web though http://groups.google.com/group/open-tech-space -- which can also be accessed as http://forum.opentechspace.org (or instead of forum, use forums, discussion, discussions, group, or list -- we aim to make it easy to find!)

The only minor issue with this is that on the website, "reply" goes to everyone, while in an email client "reply" goes to the author. I'd love to convince Google to change it so that their website buttons read "reply to author" and "reply to everyone" but good luck getting Google to change anything like this.

--wm

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[interrupt0x00]

Thanks for filling me in on this, I think I need a more flexible email
client.

I mention this here as it relates to that: did anyone recieve the OTS
wiki mave I started with OTS group?

.. maybe I should post this wave question as a separate topic? ...

On Feb 8, 3:03 pm, Wm Leler <wmle...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I purposely have the OTS group set up this way.
>
> I have it set up for modern email clients.  All modern email clients that I know of are set up so that if you do a simple "reply"  to a message from a mailing list, it will go to the specific user who sent the message, but if you do a "reply all" it will go to the user and the entire group. Likewise, if you read the message in the group website, there are links that allow you to "reply to author" (which goes just to the sender of the message), and "reply" (which goes to everyone in the group).
>

> So the way I have it set up is the most flexible and easy to use.  If your mail client isn't with the program and you are having trouble remembering which is which, I would suggest that you interact with the OTS mailing list via the web thoughhttp://groups.google.com/group/open-tech-space-- which can also be accessed ashttp://forum.opentechspace.org(or instead of forum, use forums, discussion, discussions, group, or list -- we aim to make it easy to find!)