[Tutor] adding a windows registry value

[Alan Gauld]

On 03/08/12 21:32, Walter Prins wrote:

> Well normally I expect emails from a list (being the direct sender),

But there is no concept of 'direct sender' in email. All emails bounce 
around the internet via innumerable mail relays before arriving. The 
only thing email protocols care about is the original sender. Reply 
sends it back to the originator. Reply All sends it to all recipients 
plus the original sender.

> So if a mailing list sends me an email,

The list never sends you mail.
The list only forwards mail it receives.
It's only a slightly specialised form of mail relay or proxy.

> Yes... most of the ones *I* use don't.

:-)

> nevertheless seems a less than ideal setup choice for this list given
> that the default behaviour caters for the minority use-case;

But my default behaviour is to always use ReplyAll unless I specifically 
want to talk to the sender only. It's how I reply to all of the emails I 
receive both at home and at work. And that's how all the people I work 
with operate too. So the list works exactly like the mails I receive 
from my friends, my colleagues and lots of spam too! :-(

> collective discussion.  Taking tutor problems off list is generally
> counter productive both for the people being helped and others who may

True but I often want to personally thank somebody who has answered a 
question well or maybe solved one of my issues by explaining something 
in a new way. It's not relevant to the OP or discussion and would simply 
clutter up the list. In those cases I use reply. In every other case I 
use ReplyAll, because that's what I always do for all email unless 
there's a reason not to.

The problem with the  reply goes to list approach is that replying to a 
poster individually becomes very tedious - you have to manually remove 
the unwanted addresses.

Of course the best solution is to have a client that recognises lists 
and automatically responds appropriately, mutt and Thunderbird both seem 
to do that well.

> Anyway, I'll go back to leaving this issue alone again now.  Have a
> good weekend everyone :)

Its a debate that's been raging for as long as I've been on the list - 
nearly 15 years :-)

-- 
Alan G
Author of the Learn to Program web site
http://www.alan-g.me.uk/