[Mailman-Users] B4 changed the To: line?

[Don Cooley]

To All

We have had a nice long debate about changing the To: line.  What sees
to be forgotten is that our lists serve PEOPLE and people who, by and
large, have little experience with lists.  What seems to be clear to the
experts here can be absolutely confusing to the members of our lists.
(I have 3800 members on various prostate cancer lists so it tends to be
old men.)

When I send an email I assume it goes out the way I sent it.  When I
reply to an email from a list I expect the email to go to the place I
received it from - the list for example.  It seems to me that this
change breaks both of these expectations.  For example if I want to
reply to this list and I click "Reply To All:" it puts the name of the
sender in the To: line and the name of the list in the CC line.  This is
exactly the opposite that common sense would tell you to do.  Now to
make it go to the list, logically I remove the individual name in To:
and drag the name from the CC line to the To: line.  This seems very
backward - why would I want ever to send to both and give that member
two copies of the same post.  Not logical.

ON LSoft the To: line shows the group name - THAT IS WHERE I SEND THE
POST.  Here is where it can become confusing - in my case when I send a
post I put only the List name in the To: field and all the other names
in the CC field.  This is logical to me and works very well.  However
that is not done by most of the members.  They put everyone's name in
the To: field (wish I could restrict that to one name).  Now if you
really wanted to help the members - one might consider the list name
always in the To: field and all other names in the CC field.

Sorting is another problem.  I have used LSoft for 4 years and the same
for Yahoo.  I find that they are much easier to sort than is Mailman
using Outlook 2000.  I am yet to find some ways of sorting some of the
messages I receive as owner.

Why can't the List ID contain only the name of the list and not the
other material.  Easy sort.

I don't know if I am right or wrong but what I am trying to say is that
the experts on this list seem to be arguing semantics and not real life
use of the list by the members.  For me and my old men - KISS - Keep It
Simple Stupid .

Don