[Air-l] Answering questions on mailing lists & general mailing list notes

Mark D. Johns mjohns at luther.edu
Sat Dec 16 13:16:06 PST 2006


radhika gajjala wrote:
> when you think about it, I wonder why the designers (of mailman) 
> didn't think to include that option.
> 
> There is an option that asks if you want to receive your own posts to 
> the list (and I never saw the rationale behind asking that question - 
> but maybe in some designer's logic it does)
> 
> r

Makes perfect sense: Because if the default were set to requiring "Reply 
All" and the "receiver your own messages" were set "on" you would know 
in a few minutes if you messed up by sending your reply only to the 
individual and didn't hit the list. You wouldn't see your own message 
come back, and that would tell you that you had messed up.

A darned-sight less problematic than seeing your post come back when you 
*didn't* intend it for the list!

Thanks for the Utilitarian logic, Jeremy. But we Kantians see it another 
way!  ;-)
-- 
Mark D. Johns, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Head of the
   Department of Communication Studies
Luther College, Decorah, Iowa USA
http://academic.luther.edu/~johnsmar/
-----------------------------------------------
"Get the facts first. You can distort them later."
     ---Mark Twain



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