On Mon, 20 Jun 1994 15:05:07 -0400 Stephen W. Thompson said:
(Quoting a previous post by Peter Weiss)
>> As part of a strategy to reduce traffic, you might try the following
>> ploy: with sufficient notice to the subscribers, update the list
>> defintion headers so that list replies are defaulted to the sender
>> of the original message, and NOT back to the list i.e.,
>>
>> Reply-To= Sender,Respect
 
My list (the over-busy, off-topic one) has always been reply to sender;
I assume that had it not been so, we would have started having excessive
traffic problems earlier than now.  I didn't set the list up like that
in the first place to prevent excess traffic, but to avoid embarrassing
public replies and unthought-out replies.  Naturally, I really have no
objective way to measure how effective it has been.
 
>this.  Assuming a list with pretty reasonable people who may not have
>detailed technical skills (such as ours), how much trouble can we
>expect the subscribers to have with this change?
 
Every now and again, we get people who carry on about why our list should
be so, and we have had a couple of people who signed off because (they said)
replies were so "arduous", but generally, people simply accept that that
is the way the list is.  Certainly, no one seems to have technical problems.
 
There *ARE* some other unexpected problems that you should be aware of,
though, because they *DO* cause people to get angry and sign off, and can
cause the list owner some headaches:
 
1. As has already been mentioned, some systems at some sites only show the
FROM or REPLY-TO lines in the maillist, so that messages from our list appear
as messages from individuals and not from a list. It makes some people quite
angry not to be able to tell whether, at a glance, their mail is coming from a
list or an individual. However, I do believe that the header on the actual
message shows all.Most sites seem totally uninterested in discussing the idea
of changing their setup to accommodate their users who might have this problem
with their mail.
Please don't yell at me if I don't have the terminology right. What I am saying
is correct and accurate...the way I am saying it might not be, in which case
I would appreciate learning how to say it correctly.
 
2. Quite a lot of newer and badly configured sites are set to return error
and non-delivery messages to the REPLY-TO =, which means that people who
post will receive the error messages that should have gone to the list owner
(or whoever deals with errors). Typically, the list owner is not aware that
this is happening unless s/he posts something and gets an error message and/
or one of the users requests an explanation.  What list members frequently
do when they see the error message is try posting again....and again...in
the mistaken belief that their first and second efforts were not successful!
It can be quite frustrating for everyone concerned, and not every site is
willing to make the necessary changes to fix the problem at their site.
 
Still, these problems, while annoying, do not seriously detract from the
value of having replies go to the original poster, rather than to the
list.  I think reply-to =sender is an excellent way to cut down noise on
a list.  However, one important caveat:  YOu can't keep switiching back
and forth...once the decision is made, you have to stick with it. Otherwise,
there are angry and embarrassed list members all confused and after your
hide.  Well, maybe they wouldn't be after your hide on a *Quaker* list,
but on *my* list they would be :-)
 
Peace,
Anthea