Re: Duplicate Postings again

From: Jeff Fabijanic (jeff@primordialsoft.com)
Date: Sun Mar 22 1998 - 08:50:22 MST


Harvey Newstrom <harv@gate.net> wrote:

> Randall R Randall wrote:
> >Michael Lorrey <retroman@together.net> writes:
> >>Randall: Please stop CC:ing the list at the same time that you are
> >>posting to the list. DOuble posting are annoying and a waste of
> >>bandwidth.
> >
> >Well, I know. :-\ Thanks for the reminder, though. My email
> >prog slaps that in there every time, unless I remember to
> >change it.
>
> I have complained about this before, but nobody seems to do anything about
> it. The duplicate addresses and CC:'s are being added by the List software
> itself. I don't think it is efficient to try to get everybody who posts to
> this list to try to remember to remove the duplicate addresses. If we
> believe in Intelligent Technology, then why are we running brain-dead
> software? Why are we asking the humans to readdress mail to override the
> List Software?

This is not a fault with the List serv sw! It is doing the right thing -
ie it puts a "Reply-To:" line in the header. That is SMTP* compliant. If
you're lucky, you've got a properly designed email program which has
prefs that allow you to reply to everyone listed in the header or just
the default respondee (ie the "Reply-to:" adressee if there is one, the
"From:" adressee if there is not). Under Eudora(Mac), for instance, look
under Special/Settings/Replying.

*[SMTP - Simple Mail Transport Protocol, is the defacto method of
pushing email msgs around on the net. The protocol is fairly extensive
and has been well-honed over the last decade or two. It allows
well-designed client-side sw a lot of versatility]

> Asking every List subscriber to readdress the postings properly to fix the
> bad addressing of the List Software is very inefficient. Sometimes humans
> forget.

You need only make the change to your prefs once. Learn to use the sw
*you* have correctly before flaming about the server. This is a
client-side issue.

>You realize that your suggestion, while functional, would break other
>e-mail situations, and corrects a problem that only this List has?

incorrect.

>Yes I do have my mail set to reply to all participants.

There's your problem.

>If I get mail "From: Person A", "To: Person B", "CC: Person C", and
>"Reply-To: Person D", I really do want my comments to go back to all of
>them.

But Person A (really Adressee A) has requested that you reply only to
Adressese D. If you wish to overide their wishes, you can usually hold
down a modifier key while replying to overide this default behaviour
(for instance, it's the option key w/Eudora(Mac)).

The SMTP address scheme, although not perfect, is well suited to deal
with situations such as this mailing list. I find that the extropy list
is managed quite well, all things considered.

tschau,
  Jeff

| Jeffrey Fabijanic, Designer "The Future exists,
| Primordial Software First in Imagination,
| "Software of the First Order" Then in Will,
| Boston, MA * (617) 983-1369 And finally in Reality."



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