[Openstack] Default reply to behavior for mailing list

Jay Pipes jaypipes at gmail.com
Tue Jul 31 21:41:15 UTC 2012


On 07/31/2012 03:21 PM, Sean Dague wrote:
> On 07/31/2012 02:13 PM, Jay Pipes wrote:
>>>
>>> As a counter-point, I'd prefer to keep the list as it is and *not* munge
>>> Reply-To.
>>>
>>> Since Chip summarizes it better than I can, I'll link to his article
>>> '"Reply-To" Munging Considered Harmful':
>>>
>>> http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html
>>
>> ++
>>
>> Just use a decent email program (i.e. not Outlook) that gives you things
>> like Reply to List.
> 
> "Just switch email programs" isn't really an option for many, especially
> if they are working with their corporate email infrastructure.

I respectfully disagree. I've worked at 3 companies in the last year
that all had crap Exchange infrastructure. One of the first things I did
when joining each was to learn how to set up email on my Linux machines
using Thunderbird or Evolution so I could use a real email client other
than Outlook or OWA. Email is such a critical tool for developers it
really IS that important to me... Also, not using Outlook is the number
one etiquette thing to do when using mailing lists.

See here for more information on why:

http://wiki.openstack.org/MailingListEtiquette

> My personal experience is Reply-to munging is important to keep the
> communication on list. Defaults matter. And changing 1 header on 1
> server, instead of making 3816 people (the active count on openstack
> group in launchpad) change their email client, seems the polite thing to
> do. :)

I understand your point. But frankly, I don't care all that much. If
someone isn't bothered to get a useful email client and instead just
uses the crap that their enterprise supports, I don't have a whole lot
of patience for it... Sorry, I just don't.

> That being said, I realize we're entering mostly a land of religion
> here. So I'll just end with a "long live emacs!" to try to get us to the
> godwin rule as fast as possible.

Go vi. :)

All in good fun,
-jay




More information about the Openstack mailing list