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List:       linux-admin
Subject:    Re: Fwd: wrong default route
From:       Glynn Clements <glynn () gclements ! plus ! com>
Date:       2008-07-08 21:09:30
Message-ID: 18547.55178.673887.918601 () cerise ! gclements ! plus ! com
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Herta Van den Eynde wrote:

> Apologies for using "Reply" instead of "Reply to all".  I'm used to
> mailinglists putting the mailinglist's address in the reply-to field.
> Any reason why this mailing list does not do that?

Because the Reply-To header "belongs" to the author.

Occasionally, it may be desirable to post private replies, and
"stealing" the Reply-To header prevents that (mail clients won't let
you reply to the From address if a Reply-To header exists).

Not only does a forced Reply-To header prevent the message from being
sent directly to the user, but will cause it to be sent to a public
mailing list instead. If the reply was intending to be private, the
message may well contain information which shouldn't be made public.

The author can always choose to add their own Reply-To header if they
never want to receive off-list replies.

Having the mailing list set its own Reply-To header is a workaround
for "non-technical" lists, where many of the subscribers may not
understand the difference between "reply" and "follow-up".

Presumably the vger admins (naïvely) assumed that a list targeted to
Linux sysadmins doesn't need such workarounds.

-- 
Glynn Clements <glynn@gclements.plus.com>
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