RE: replying to postings

[Allen Wayne <Wayne.Allen@rhul.ac.uk>]

Hello All,

Can I restate my position. A number of people on this list who attended
Minos 2003 asked for the list to be modified to automatically return
messages to the group. As I did not consider this to be a major issue, and
on a number of occasions I have had to cross post messages to the list to
ensure replies are seen I agreed. I spoke to the support team, and against
their wishes (as they had similar issues regarding 'private' emails) asked
for the list settings to be modified. 

I understand now that some list members may have issues with this, but I did
not feel that it was a serious enough issue to be brought up for list
discussion. This may have been as error of judgement on my part, and if so I
apologise.

Considering that this is the first occasion that I know of that a private
email has been sent to the list that has caused problems I still don't see a
major issue, however,

The original poster (Edmund) send a message to Duncan, who then posted it to
the list believing it to be relevant. Whether this was correct is between
Duncan and Edmund, as would be any other correspondence posted firstly to an
individual and then to a public list. Please note that although I am
mentioned below (as the actioner) I did not receive a copy of this email.

I do not wish to comment on the content of the email but I would ask all to
please try to keep material that may be considered by some to be more
'personal' off the list. If you wish to post material to the list that has
been sent directly to you then I suggest you ask the originator first. Could
we now please kill this thread and more conversation back to the more
important topic--- Micromouse.


Many thanks


Wayne
Wayne.allen@rhul.ac.uk

P.S. if anyone wishes to comment privately on this issue please email the
persons concerned directly, not through the list.



-----Original Message-----
From: Edmund Stephen-Smith [mailto:edmund@stephen-smith.org] 
Sent: 17 September 2003 19:16
To: Duncan Louttit
Cc: micromouse@cs.rhul.ac.uk; Allen Wayne
Subject: Re: replying to postings


Oh, please!  You infer that I either intended-to or should-have populated
everyone's mailbox with a reply directed to you (as the suggestor of the
change) and Wayne (as the actioner).  Since I was asking you two to
reconsider your positions, it was appropriate to be private, and not
list-wide.  Instead, you insult my intelligence list-wide, to "prove" your
point, without even the courtesy of CCing me.

I strongly believe that the _policy_ of defaulting replies to the list is a
poor one.  Much more damage is done by intended-to-be-private emails being
public than by intended-to-be-public emails being private.

If a majority of list members want the list this way, OK, but may we please
have an informed discussion first?

Edmund.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Duncan Louttit" <duncan@swallow.co.uk>
To: <micromouse@cs.rhul.ac.uk>
Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2003 9:39 AM
Subject: Re: replying to postings


> Hi Everyone,
>
> I think this proves my point. Surely we want the conversation to go 
> through the list rather than just back to the originator. This email 
> was sent to me rather than the list.
>
> My email system doesn't have "Reply to All" or "Follow up".
>
> Regards,
>
> Duncan
>
> At 23:51 16/09/03 +0100, you wrote:
> >Nooooo!  With the current setup, if you want to reply to the list, 
> >use "Reply to All" or "Follow up", depending on your mailer.  To 
> >reply to
just
> >the Sender, hit Reply.  A little thought is required, but everyone on 
> >the
MM
> >list is capable of that.
> >
> >If the "From:" is set to the list, it becomes a pain to choose to 
> >reply
to
> >just the sender -- you have to manually edit the To: list.
> >
> >Edmund.
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Allen Wayne" <Wayne.Allen@rhul.ac.uk>
> >To: <micromouse@cs.rhul.ac.uk>
> >Sent: Tuesday, September 16, 2003 9:52 AM
> >Subject: RE: replying to postings
> >
> >
> >> I have asked the support team to adjust this.
> >>
> >> Wayne
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Duncan Louttit [mailto:duncan@swallow.co.uk]
> >> Sent: 16 September 2003 09:04
> >> To: micromouse@cs.rhul.ac.uk
> >> Subject: replying to postings
> >>
> >>
> >> Hi Everyone,
> >>
> >> One of the things that was mentioned at MINOS is that people get 
> >> direct replies to emails on the list. This is unfortunate as the 
> >> rest
of
> >us
> >> only see one side of the conversation. I have two requests:
> >>
> >> 1) Please don't just press the "reply" button to emails from the 
> >> list.
> >>
> >> 2) Can the list organisers change the way it operates so the the 
> >> emails appear to come from the list. This would mean that we didn't
have
> >to
> >> do 1) above.
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >>
> >> Duncan
> >>
> >
> >
> >
>