Olympus-OM
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: [OM] (OT) How to write an autoreply routine

Subject: Re: [OM] (OT) How to write an autoreply routine
From: Volkhart Baumgaertner <kyu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 14:52:09 +0200
Yo,

on 14 Apr 2000 08:20:23 +1000, Christopher Biggs wrote:

>> on 13 Apr 2000 13:27:29 +1000, you wrote:
>You really should have your mailer attribute messages by name, as
>threads on this list tend to get long (don't we all know!).

Normally, it does. I screwed this one up manually because I was interrupted
while editing the message.

>Good mailers have two distinct reply commands:
>
>        "reply to sender"
>        "reply to all recipients" 
>
>That allows you to make the *choice* where you want to send it,
>without having to cut-and-paste *anything*.

That is, of course, true. However, I still see 2 problems:

- not all subscribers to a mailing list use a good mailer, especially on a
mailing list with a non-computer-related topic. We computer pros tend to
forget that these folks mostly use what they - for one reason or another -
happen to have.

The second problem IMHO is more serious:

- I (and others, as I know from a couple of mailing lists that handle it
that way) usually forget to hit "reply to all" instead of just "reply".
That's what happens when you're on various mailing lists _and_ newsgroups.
When you're replying to something, you just don't always realize whether
you're on a newsgroup or a mailing list with reply-to set (where you just
hit "reply") or on one of the few mailing lists without reply-to set (where
you need to hit "reply to all"). That way, very often the original poster
receives a reply to his/her message, but the list doesn't. It really bothers
me, for instance, that when someone asks a question on the German Yamaha FJ
mailing list that I find interesting (and that I suppose also interests
others), frequently few if any answers ever reach the list (so you never
know whether there actually were no replies, or whether they just didn't
make it to the list), and I assume it bothers more than the few people I've
talked to just as much as me. This is not a problem of the software used -
it's a user problem.


>(Personally it doesn't overly concern me which way a particular list
>is configured, because I use my mail filters to mung the incoming mail
>to suit my preferences).

Same thing here, but only partly. After a few of the auto-replies Chris went
into a kill filter that will expire on May 17, the day of his return
according to the auto-replies. So something like the present problem really
doesn't bother me. It would bother me, however, if much of the gems of
OM-wisdom the list profits from were lost to our community because they
would only go to the poster of the message they are in reply to, for lack of
a set "reply-to" to the list.


MtFbwy,
Volkhart

--
Volkhart Baumgaertner     email: kyu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
                                 MausNet: @MGN

< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Sponsored by Tako
Impressum | Datenschutz