Re: [Usability] Mailing list question

[Matthew Paul Thomas <mpt myrealbox com>]

Alan Horkan wrote:
> 
> Current policy is intentional and traditional ...
> 
> see:
> http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html
>...

It's a usability problem with e-mail clients. Not only do most of them
not have a "Reply to List" button, but they expect you to decide whether
your reply would be better sent to the author or to everyone *before
you've even started writing it*. This makes the decision unnecessarily
hurried and error-prone (and also contributes to inane personal chatter
on mailing lists). I look forward to one day using a mailer that gets
this right.

Even while we wait for such software, though, the embarrassment caused
by replies sent to the list that were supposed to go just to the
previous author probably would outweigh the annoyance caused by replies
sent to an individual that were supposed to go to the list. I'm
subscribed to a mailing list that works the way Caleb suggested, and
it's a frequent cause of cringing when replies that were supposed to be
private end up being read by the entire organization. But it's an
asymmetric problem, rare severe harm versus more common small annoyance,
which is why the issue is contentious.

Cheers
-- 
Matthew Paul Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/