[Bioperl-l] Changing default reply-to on this list

[Sean Davis]

Roy Chaudhuri wrote:
>> I'd like to propose changing the default reply-to for posts on this list 
>> from the current 'reply to the poster' to 'reply to the mailing list'. 
>> That way people can just hit 'reply' instead of 'reply to all' in order 
>> to get a reply back to the list.
>>     
>
> We did this on our mailing list, and found it to be problematic if the 
> messages still appear to come from an individual rather than the list- 
> people may not realise they are replying to the whole list. This can 
> lead to all sorts of issues- my boss and a collaborator once had a 
> discussion (fortunately nothing too sensitive) that was accidentally 
> copied to everyone in their field. The alternative is to overwrite the 
> from: field as well as reply-to:, but then you rely on people having 
> suitably informative signatures should anyone want to contact them 
> off-list, and it makes the archives less useful.
>
> See also this:
> http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html
>   

I tend to agree here.  I have seen some pretty significant accidents due 
to this feature.  I think less harm is done by simply putting the thread 
back on list, if appropriate, if the sender happens to send to the 
original sender and not the entire list. 

Sean