on 5/8/02 4:21 PM, Andrea Rayner at [log in to unmask] wrote:
>>> Andrea Rayner would like to recall the message, "ILT loan".
>>
>> There seem to be more automatic "out of the office" replies and accidental
>> personal replies sent to this list than genuine postings.
>>
>> I suggested this solution before (on June 27th): can we change the list
>> configuration to "replies-to-sender" rather than "replies-to-list" please?
>> This should minimise the above problems. Is there a list administrator
>> here?
>>
>> Many thanks.
>>
>> Ashley.
>>
>> PS "Recall"-ing messages doesn't in general work for Internet mail.
>
> My apologies to the list users for the public correspondence being
> inadvertently conducted between myself and the THES. We are in fact
> already looking at whether the list should be reconfigured as you suggest;
> that would, however, preclude people joining in a general discussion unless
> they actively opted to reply to the list.
>
> Andrea
A good point. But unless mail client programs warn users that they are
about to reply to a mailing list (technically easily possible, but many
don't do this), accidents like the recent ones are bound to happen when
people are in a rush and don't check the To: field.
I think the potential embarrassment to all concerned in such an accidental
slip (all 520 people on the list affected) out-weighs the inconvenience of
replying to sender instead of joining in a discussion by mistake (noone
affected, and mistake easily rectified... yes, if the mistake is spotted --
but hopefully posters will notice the lack of acknowledgement).
Is it possible to also change the configuration to add some standard text to
the foot of each list posting warning to "reply to list" if appropriate?
This standard footer could also give a pointer to some unsubscribe
instructions.
Ashley.
--
Ashley Ward: Teaching Fellow. Academic, PhD student, Musician
[log in to unmask] | http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~ashley/
Room 3.21, Department of Computer Science, University of Warwick, Coventry
Tel: +44 (0)24 765 73774 (let ring for voicemail) Fax: +44 (0)24 7657 3024
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