[Users] reply to list

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Wed, 21 Sep 2016 00:39:33 -0400, Steve Litt wrote:
>Unfortunately, CCs are getting quite common on technical mailing lists.

To Cc is not wrong per se. Cc could be wanted for two reasons. To
include all coders and maintainers that need to follow a topic, but not
necessarily follow the mailing list. For open-mailing lists, if
somebody shouldn't be subscribed to the list.

>As you mention, behavior on these CCs seems to be indeterminate, so I'm
>forced to take the extra step, when replying, of making sure my Reply
>to List button, which invokes CLAWS' REPLY-TO-LIST Function, actually
>sends it to the list and not to the individual.

You could call it "indeterminate", but it doesn't happen randomly.

If you receive duplicated mails, it depends on what mail you use to
reply. Do you reply to the mail with or without the mailing list
headers?

If you anyway use the mail without the mailing list headers, you could
avoid receiving duplicated mails at least for mailman lists,
http://www.list.org/mailman-member/node21.html , but without the
mailing list headers replying to the mailing list doesn't work at all,
a reply invokes a reply to the sender only, while "All" includes all Cc
addresses.

Cc are not included to a reply, if mailing list headers are available.

"Reply to list" and a reply to list invoked by "Reply" do behave the
same way.

More problematic is the "Reply-to" header. Some people don't want to
receive duplicated messages. They use a "Reply-to" header that is equal
to the address they use to send mails. That is idiotic, since by
default each MUA replies to the address used to send, as long as
"Reply-to" doesn't mention another address. If the "Reply-to" is used
when sending mail to a mailing list, a user should expect to receive
duplicates, assuming the list doesn't override the "Reply-to".

Regards,
Ralf