Re: [Doxygen-users] Mailing list reply address

[Jac G. <ja...@ma...>]

>>Last note: xteq mailing list was set up to allow to reply directly to 
the
>>mailing list. doxygen-users ML is set up for replying to the 
originator of
>the
>>message. I believe the ML administrator should set the xteq behavior, 
as it
>>is more convenient.
>
>I realize that it is more convenient, but most mailing lists are set 
to
>reply to the originator for a reason. This avoids the problem we often 
have
>on the xteq list of autoresponders flooding the mailing list when 
someone
>goes out of town and forgets that they are on the mailing list.

The MailMan program (which is used by SourceForge) has an option to 
delay incoming mails to prevent auto-reply-flooding. Also, MailMan is 
smart enough to filter a lot of things out that aren't supposed to go 
to the list, including commands like Unsubscribe, and (possibly, I'm 
not sure of this), mails that already have been sent (e.g. auto-respond 
replies). 

The problem as I recall with the old list was many times that 
autoresponders would reply to the sender, not to the list, so the list 
server couldn't adequately react to the autoresponder (e.g. by 
forwarding the mail to the administrator and putting the recipient on 
hold) because it would never get the mail. So setting the reply-to to 
the list addres wouldn't even work for these brain-dead auto-
responders.

Another issue: many times, people simply reply to mails by clicking the 
reply-button. The reply will be sent to the person who asked so she 
will be happy, but she will also get many replies of other people who 
didn't see the first reply. This is a waste of effort for people who 
regularly reply to questions on the mailing list and don't initiate 
many discussions themselves.

Also, on brain-dead mailing clients (like the one I use, I have to 
admit, even though it was written by my own company), there isn't even 
a reply-to-all or reply-to-sender-not-originator button - you have to 
dig through menus to get to it and of course it's easy to forget to do 
so, especially if you're subscribed to multiple mailing lists (like 
me).

In short: I think the old situation was better and reply-to the mailing 
list address should return.

===Jac