Date   : Sun, 15 Nov 2009 09:25:25 +1100
From   : msmcdoug@... (Mark McDougall)
Subject: The whole "reply to" issue

James Fidell wrote:

> If, after reading those, you think it's still a good idea to violate the
> IETF standard 

Like a lot of people, you've missed the point entirely. I and I suspect a 
lot of others, couldn't give a proverbial rat's that the IETF standard is 
being violated.

Every-day life is littered with examples of laws and standards that are 
ignored in favour of "convention" because convention is simply more 
practical/intuitive/convenient and - by definition - has become the norm.

At the end of the day, all that matters is that the behaviour - from a user 
POV - is the same as every other mailing list on the planet. And the same as 
usenet newsgroups I might add!

Long after I've forgotten about this debate, I'll be perusing my 22 mailing 
lists and 18 usenet newsgroups, chiming in occasionally, and when I come to 
bbc-micro I'll automatically hit 'reply', like I do for every other 
list/newsgroup, and unwittingly reply to only the sender. IETF be damned - 
that is going to p*ss me off!

_That_ is the point.

I suppose I can take some small comfort in the fact that someone else will 
raise this same issue a few months later and I'll suddenly be reminded again 
why my post didn't appear.

Ultimately, if you want to take a (lonely) stand against the flagrant 
disregard of the IETF standard and its (apparent) shocking detrimental 
effect on the environment, the economy and world peace, then we have no 
choice but to suck it up - but rest assured I'll be swearing under my breath 
at you (and the IETF standards) every time I hit 'reply'....

Regards,

-- 
|              Mark McDougall                | "Electrical Engineers do it
|  <http://members.iinet.net.au/~msmcdoug>   |   with less resistance!"