Re: mea máxima culpa

[Brian Barker]

At 14:50 12/09/2013 -0500, Evan Driscoll wrote:
> Now, that being said and because I'm sure no one cares, IMO the way 
> the Lilypond list is set up ("reply" goes to the sender) is 
> *absolutely* the correct way to run a mailing list, and the 
> alternative is completely maddening.

It's not just your opinion: mailing list processors have no business 
inserting a Reply-To: header, which is instead the sole domain of the 
message's author.  RFC 2822 appears to require this: "When the 
'Reply-To:' field is present, it indicates the mailbox(es) to which 
the *author* of the message suggests that replies be sent" (my 
emphasis).  The author of a message, of course, is not the list.

> What action is *common* is only one of the two things that should be 
> considered when assigning a default. Also should be considered is 
> how damaging the other choice is. Replying to the list when you want 
> to respond just to the sender has the potential to be a much more 
> "damaging" action than replying to just the sender when you want to 
> send to the list.

Exactly: the right way fails safe.  A message intended to be public 
may get sent privately by mistake - a minor inconvenience that can 
easily be remedied by sending the message again correctly.  The use 
of a Reply-To: header directed to a list risks messages intended to 
be private being sent publicly - a unfortunate consequence that 
simply cannot be undone.

This mailing list is configured unusually but properly.

Brian Barker