[Tutor] Set Reply-To field to Tutor at python.org

[Oscar Benjamin]

On 29 January 2013 03:35, DoanVietTrungAtGmail <doanviettrung at gmail.com> wrote:
> As a student user of this list, I prefer leaving the Reply-To field
> unchanged. I like the fact that this means a deliberate  decision is
> required to send public emails.

If you don't mind my asking, do you send many off-list messages as
replies to on-list ones?

I see the mailing list as being fundamentally a public message forum
and only very occasionally send an off-list message. Usually the
reason that I do this is because someone else has sent me a message
off-list and even though I'm fairly sure they meant it to be on-list I
don't want to assume that they did by replying back to the list.

Often this means that the archives are incomplete, so that there is a
thread but the part of the thread where the OP says "Thanks, this is
the solution that worked" or "Sorry, that's not what I meant. My
actual problem is..." is missing. Not having this information on the
list is unhelpful. It is unhelpful for people reading the archives in
the future, for people who keep replying to a thread that is
essentially solved, and for people who offer suggestions and don't get
feedback on whether their suggestions were useful.

Of course if the message is deliberately sent off-list then that is
fine but I find that I send/receive many more accidentally off-list
messages than deliberate ones. It's hard to predict how often the
alternative, accidentally sending a private message to the list, would
occur. Although judging from other lists where reply-to-list is the
default I would say not very often.

I don't find that replying to the list is a deliberate decision to
engage in public conversation since the fact that I read and respond
to the list at all is because I have already made that decision. For
me at least, it is replying off-list that requires explicit
consideration.


Oscar