Re: VOTE: replies to sender or list?

[rocket@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

At 10:27 AM 3/6/95, Patrick Hester wrote:
>OK, let's try an experiment.
>
>Everybody vote for whether you think replies should be to the
>original poster or to the list.
>
>Please DO NOT POST your vote to the list.
>EMAIL your vote to me.
>
>I'll tally the votes and post the results.

Seems like we need more discussion on the subject before we take it to a vote.

One of the arguments given for "reply to sender" was that the net's getting
more crowded everyday and this will help reduce noise. I believe that as
responsible citizens in a cyber community, we ALL need to take
responsibility in reducing noise. To me it's not that much different than
recycling the plastic, glass and newspapers in our trash, everybody must do
their part. The net gets noisier and the landfills get full. Any excuse
used about one's mail client is sheer ignorance. Either learn how the mail
client operates, get another mail client which will do what you want it do
to, or get out of town. If one were to get into a car accident because they
didn't know how to drive a stick shift, they're still responsible.
Education plays a large part in getting people to use courtesy and
efficiency while on the net. It also requires not thinking like typical
wasteful Americans(i.e., the landfills will never get full).

When replying to a post, there are some on this list who feel a need to
include ALL of the text of the message they are replying to. This is rarely
necessary and requires that those who do this get more familiar with their
mail client and be more net-aware. There are also those who've used the net
to advertise their own harmonica-related business. The list isn't for that
either. Last week when Tom Ellis so generously offered to send a Tube Amp
Primer to anyone interested, many people used the list to send Tom their
address. That is not necessary. We have private mail for such things.

Claiming that only one address need be remembered is also claiming
ignorance of one's mail client. If one's mail client doesn't have an
address book, it's time to upgrade. There're too many
feature-laden-net-surfing-software packages available to blame the
software.

I never (except by accident) blindly reply to messages. Some of my
responses go to the list and some go to the sender. Each message is unique
but most of my replies go to the list.

I believe that replying to sender only will reduce noise, but not near as
much as individuales taking responsibility for their own actions on the
net. I also believe that replying to sender only will reduce the amount of
information that this international harmonica community shares with each
other.

It's been mentioned on this list that I have an endorsment agreement with
Hohner. I also am an accomplished player with a ton of professional
experience. BUT, I've learned a tremendous amount of info from being a
subscriber to this list and I would hate to see something interfere with
that.

And, having said that, I want to thank all of you. This list is a great
thing and I have much gratitude for what goes on here.

Rkt