Date   : Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:10:24 +0000
From   : james@... (James Fidell)
Subject: The whole "reply to" issue

I read the list in bursts these days, catching up once a week or so,
although I've been working about fifteen hours a day for the last few
weeks so I'm behind with the latest "discussion" on the setting of the
reply to header.  In the past I've kept out of the discussion anyhow
because as far as I'm concerned, from a wider point of view the issue
is already resolved.

When it comes to the internet (and like a few others on this list I've
been involved in it one way or another since before most people had even
heard of it), I'm a firm believer in adherence to standards and the
predictable behaviour that gives.  For this reason the headers for this
list have always been set to reply to the message originator rather than
the list.

I'd encourage anyone involved in the debate to read the following:

   http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html
   http://www.metasystema.net/essays/reply-to.html
   http://woozle.org/~neale/papers/reply-to-still-harmful.html

If, after reading those, you think it's still a good idea to violate the
IETF standard (and let's face it, this email exchange is happening only
because people stick to those standards), then you're welcome to explain
why.  But you're going to need a pretty compelling reason to persuade me
to change it.

James