[FFML] Just a note on configuration

[Gary Kleppe]

Jon Rosebaugh <fanfic at inklesspen.com> wrote:
>I'd consider _not_ using reply-to munging on this list to be harmful.  
>It encourages replies to go off-list (even more so for Gmail users,  
>where Reply is directly visible, but Reply to All is hidden in a  
>dropdown), and we're not overwhelmed with traffic. I'd go so far as  
>to say that we _need_ that traffic. It also causes the CC list to  
>build up, requiring people to manually remove unneeded addresses;  
>indeed, you're likely going to get two copies of this, because I  
>can't be arsed to remove your name from the To list, and move the  
>FFML address there. If we want to encourage a culture where the  
>default response is a public response, it seems clear which option we  
>should choose.

If anyone's keeping track, put me down as a vote for keeping the default reply
to the sender.

No matter what the setting is here, anyone has the option of replying privately
or on the list. Whatever the default is, it's your choice to change it. I don't
know how you can possibly consider it a huge bother to alter the destination of
an email; it typically takes all of five seconds. Plenty of us were doing public
comments on the old list, and the lack of a default reply-to header never slowed
us down.

The real question here is, if someone replies but doesn't bother to make a
conscious decision as to where the reply should go, where should it go? I think
the obvious answer is to err on the side of caution and have it go to the
sender. Worst case scenario with this, a post intended for the list gets sent to
the sender alone. Easy to remedy by re-sending it. Worst case scenario the other
way, a post intended for the sender alone gets sent to the list. Maybe this post
has flames, gossip, or personal information that the sender hadn't intended to
share with the rest of the world. In any case, once it's sent it can't be
unsent. I think we'd all agree that one kind of traffic we *don't* need is
traffic that the sender hadn't intended us to see.