Re: replies to sender or list?

[Mike Curtis <wd6ehr@xxxxxxxxxx>]

> > All you have to do is read your outgoing mail headers to
> > keep from making these embarrassing mistakes.
> 
> Sure. If you even know there is such a thing as mail headers.
> But many people on the list do not know this. Or even how to
> change the reply address. In fact, novice users may well
> assume responses go to the original poster.

We come to the issue of education.  In amateur radio, we have exactly the
same scenario, except violations are often of federal law, not socially
acceptable behavior.  It's general concensus that it's the duty of the
experienced to educate new ones.  We refer to these "teachers" as
"Elmers", considered to be a warmly affectionate and endearing term.  

With the changes in internet and the great influx, it should be the duty
of old timers to "hip" newer ones on these things.  I've found from
personal experience that "nice is best" in these situations.  When we do
things daily, it may seem mysterious that others don't know them
intuitively, but this is the case.  We really need to be cognizant of this
and "strike while the iron is hot". 

> > if we're going to err, I'd much rather err on the side of
> > including unwanted stuff than missing out on wanted stuff.
> 
> Like it's a surprise Mike wants to include as much traffic
> as possible on the list!   8^O

Sure - I admit to enjoying this group, and find most posts entertaining, 
amusing, and/or helpful.

> It's going to get noisier and noisier in cyberspace, people.
> Anything we do to cut a little noise now will go a long way
> later. That embot thing should be a warning.

True.  And as we automate things more, more things will go wrong and 
generate stuff like you wouldn't believe.  On ham packet, I've seen 
a couple of my bulletins replicate tens of thousands of copies worldwide.  
(and you think I'm bad here ;-)  Turned out to be one version of BBS 
software that didn't recognize "slash-EX <space>" as a valid EOF and 
would pass it along to other BBS's that did.  I was using 1.com editor, 
which when it reformats puts spaces at the end of lines.

I'm glad it was me that it happened to, rather than some poor new guy 
who's already intimidated as all getout.  I received quite a few nasty 
notes about it - notes from people who were annoyed and "shot from the 
hip" without thinking first.  The kind of notes that get recipients in a 
hostile and noncooperatative mood, which is much more serious on amateur 
radio than internet due to our openness and vulnerability to RF jamming.

But what I see on internet is that there is still quite a bit of 
vulnerability.  It's best to step on as few toes as possible, and make 
all the friends you possibly can.

> Plus, when you really want to reply to the poster, there is
> no simple way. You gotta cut/paste the reply address and it
> is different every time. If reply did this automatically,
> the only address you'd have to remember is Harp-L.

A great many of us use Windows.  We can use ALT-SPACE E K to select 
edit-kut (mnemonically korrect :-), and ALT-SPACE E P to edit-paste.  
Also, if we don't have the capability (or knowhow) to edit included text, 
we can synopsize rather than quote.

I read @ 1200 wpm and skim perhaps an order of magnitude faster, so excess 
text doesn't bother me nearly as much as it would the average reader.  
Nevertheless, a well edited reply is easier on the eyes than a blob of 
impertinent text.

 -- mike