Hello Dave, On 2009-10-13, Dave Sherohman wrote:
> [...] > The position I was trying to explain in my earlier message was that, > even though 99% of replies to mailing list messages are intended to go > to the list, directing an intended-private message to the list causes > over 100 times more harm than a message intended for the list being > inadvertently made private. The Debian list policy is, therefore, > reasonable, because it minimizes the overall total harm caused by > misdirected messages. > I completely agree with You! My wife hosts a mailing list for scientists, and although most of the subscribers have a 'Dr.' or 'Ph.D.' in their title, messages from the list are repeatedly replied to as if they came from private email addresses. The list is usually monitored, and there is a lot of work to weed out private messages. Despite repeated detailed explanations of why these things happen, some people keep doing it wrong again and again... Now, sometimes, the list is left to run unmonitored and then it can get really wild: Apart from harmless accounts about personal experiences, travel itineraries, and family matters, there have been cases of subscribers unknowingly posting their credit card details to the list, which is a serious problem, since anyone can read the list messages. So, the list policy is sound. Regards, -- Christer Email: coldh...@swipnet.se -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
