On Thu, 3 Jan 2002, der Mouse wrote:

> >> ... which then sends the message on to me, and both your copy to me
> >> and the one from port-macppc end up in my inbox.  I don't need or
> >> want two copies of the same message.
>
> > Unfortunatly though you will need to learn to adapt, or set the
> > reply-to in your messages to the list.
>
> I guess basic politeness - doing something basically trivial to make
> someone else's life a little easier, when asked nicely - is dead, then?

But is it basically trivial? Yes, any one instance of it is trivial. And
I'm happy to do it.

The part that is not trivial is remembering it. More to the point,
remembering Derek doesn't want to be directly contacted, and instead wants
to use list posting instead, or he'll grumble at you.

For better or worse, Derek, your preference is unique. While I believe the
lists will come to respect it, you are the only person I know of who
systematically makes that request. All of the other times I've seen it
(asking to be dropped from a cc list) have been where someone is active in
the opening of a thread (and thus in the cc list), but drops out as the
thread changes direction to something s/he isn't interested in.

> Yes, it takes a second or so longer to remove all the unnecessary
> people from the headers.  *I* am willing to spend that second for the
> sake of being nice to people.  Is nobody else?!
>
> I occasionally forget, it's true.  I much more often will be unsure
> whether someone is on-list and send an individual copy to be safe,
> especially near the beginning of a conversation.
>
> > Addressing the message to you and cc'ing the list keeps the
> > converstaion going (it is to you) yet keeps the list involved too.
>
> Since Derek is on the list, simply sending it to the list and nowhere
> else would do that very nicely.  Sending a copy to Derek and another to
> the list is unnecessary bandwidth wastage and unnecessary Derek
> annoyance.

Other people have different preferences. I personally like getting
multiple copies. The ones that come into my personal mail box stand out,
and usually get answered sooner than the ones in the list mail box. Also,
there are times when list mail delivery bogs down, and I get the
personally directed messages much sooner (sometimes a day) than the list
ones. So I've seen whole conversations which just show up a day after they
happened. :-)

Take care,

Bill