[ardour-users] list behaviour change request (reply to user vs. reply to list)

[moron]

On Friday 04 November 2005 12:40, Frank Barknecht wrote:
> Search google for "reply-to munging considered harmful" to understand,
> why it is the way it is.

I understand why mainly one individual feels this way but that  hardly makes 
it the "correct" way.  

The main argument offered against "reply-munging" (I would argue it is should 
be termed "reply-sanitizing" since that is what is being done) boils down to 
the some people accidentally sending a note to a list they meant to go to an 
individual.  "Reply to all" is hardly a cure for that, user error is still 
user error.  

Relying on "reply to all" creates a situation analagous to excessive 
cross-posting on Usenet.  I am regularly seeing posts to the Ardour lists 
with both external users and external lists listed in the address list which 
means that this is setting is causing messages to be sent to destinations 
there is no sane reason to.

For example, a recent post about Qjackctl included 2 user email addresses plus 
two list ones, one of which is a list I am not even subscribed to.   
Encouraging replies to go to external lists and multiple external users is 
plain out broken behaviour.  

As it stands, the list is also nicely configured as a harrassment tool - CC 
someone you do not like in a message likely to get a significant amount of 
traffic (something flamish, an OS war perhaps) and then watch as every person 
replying here spams the third party.  CC some known spam-trap addresses and 
watch as the Ardour server and the mail server's it's users use end up in 
blacklists.  

This "reply-to" setup is very close in evilness to MDN "read receipts" (which 
Mailman also has an option to disable).

> you can set a preference, so that you don't get duplicate mails
> delivered. It's called "Avoid duplicate copies of messages?" and I
> think, it even defaults to "On" with ardour-lists. So you won't get
> any mail from the list, if you are in the CC-list and this setting is
> active.

The side effect of this is that it makes non-obvious (in some cases) when a 
message is from an individual from when it is from a public mailing list.  
Again, you are treating a mailing list as a glorified email alias.  It is not 
nor should it be treated as such.

IMHO of course.

Cheers

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