I interrupt the good discussion on concelebration only to explain the
current configuration of this list and the reasons for it.  The
configuration is set to "reply-to-sender" - that is, if you just hit the
"reply" button your message is routed to the original poster, not the
entire list.  It changed to that in January when, at what seemed to be
the clear wish of those members who gave an opinion, I ended the
practice of message moderation which the previous two listowners had
used.  We do have an element of choice in this matter, but there has to
be EITHER moderation OR reply-to-sender.  It is not practicable to run
Liturgy@mailbase without moderation but with reply-to-list.  For those
who are interested, I will just explain why.

It is evidence of the very wide interest in liturgy that this list has a
wide membership, well over 400, with a very wide variety of email
services, including many on commercial ISPs. Presumably because of the
variety of systems, and the fluidity of some of them, (do people change
their ISPs rather frequently these days?) it generates a staggering
number of bad addresses and undeliverable message returns, well over 150
already this year.  To put that in context, it is well over ten times
the total for two other academic lists which I manage. 

Normally, these error messages are correctly intercepted by the mailbase
server and forwarded to me for attention.  However, an occasional one
will be sent to the "reply-to" address in the message.  When
reply-to-list is enabled, these then go out to everyone on the list,
generating a mail loop as even more errors are generated - and you could
log on the following day to find over a hundred error messages blocking
your mailbox. This would happen not only to me, but to every member of
the list. Long standing members will recall that this did happen a
couple of times before moderation was introduced.

I don't know how the American Liturgy-L team handle this problem.  It
may be that their software is more sophisticated, or that the computer
operation is manned for longer hours and so loops can be noticed faster.
The problem is exacerbated for Liturgy@mailbase in that the Mailbase
server is in England, whereas much of the traffic on Liturgy originates
in North America, so loops are likely to develop overnight while the
centre is unmanned.  In any case, the Mailbase staff are extremely busy,
and we are bound to avoid causing problems which require their
intervention if at all possible.

Having explained that, I am really puzzled that members should have
difficulty in redirecting their replies to the list.  I have tried all
the common mail programs, and it should always be possible either to
edit the address for replies, replacing it with
"[log in to unmask]", or to insert this into the CC: box.  The even
easier alternative is to hit "forward" rather than reply, and then enter
the list address.

I regret the length of this message, but judging from the comments I
thought it might help to give everyone a full picture.


Adrian Machiraju,
[log in to unmask]
Bedford  Library,                               
Royal Holloway College,                                    Tel. (+44)
1784 443327
University of London,
EGHAM, Surrey, TW20 0EX, U.K.                     FAX (+44)1784 477670




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