User:Rewood/Mailing lists replies

The default settings for the engr-sysadm@lists mailing list are set to have the "reply-to" address set to the list itself. For anyone "hitting" the reply button on their email client to a message sent to the list, it should auto-populate the "To:" field for the email message to the list. Mark, this is why you are seeing the responses, because they are going to the list itself.

There are usually two options, or some and/or combination thereof when configuring an email list:

1) have the reply-to set to the sender 2) have the reply-to set to the list

Option #2: is meant for "discussion-style" lists. It facilitates discussion in that the default follow-up is directed at the list. With Option #1: List participants must click "Reply-All" in order to have a response go to the list, with the by-product that the sender also gets put on the "To:" line, meaning they'll get two copies of the mail, and I've watched "discussions" that originate via "Reply-All" end up with have the list membership on the "To:" line.

However, with Option #2: it's quite likely that someone, at some point, will send an self-embarassing note to the list that was not meant for the list. So, most lists on campus end up being Option #1. Which is fine, there aren't very many discussions going on with mailing lists on campus.