Tim: >> I have no desire for private mail from a >> public list (typically such things are by mistake, or because someone >> wants to behave in a manner that wouldn't be tolerated in public), Les Mikesell: > Well, no, it's because from the beginning internet mail lists > used the sender's 'From:' and the replier was expected to > 'reply all' if he wanted to include the list. Some have > since changed the list behavior but there is still a good > argument that the original way was correct. (The argument > goes that you should expect email to be private and having > a private message exposed in pubic is a worse problem than > the reverse.) For private mail, to begin with, I might agree. But when sending mail to a PUBLIC mailing LIST, I don't think there's any pretence about it supposedly being private mail. The same sort of thing went about on BBSs before the public internet: Mail sent privately to one person was private. Mail sent to a list/group/message-area went to that group, all could read, and all replies automatically went back to the same place. Internet mailing lists that don't work that way are the odd ones out. >> anybody reading my messages on here can read the signature line >> explaining it, but if they really need a private message they can ask me >> to e-mail them (i.e. I am not uncontactable). I treat this mailing list >> rather like a news group. > You don't really expect the rest of the world to care what you > put in your signature, do you? Are you that special? You > can use email your way and I'll use mine. Twit! Didn't read what I said, did you? (I am no uncontactable.) For those that want to contact me, they can figure it out (the information is there for those that WANT to know). It doesn't matter for anyone else. -- Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored. I read messages from the public lists.
