Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 11:59:40 -0400

From: Undetermined origin c/o Postmaster POSTMASTER[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UGA.BITNET

Subject: No subject given



(Linux Smail3.1.28.1 #5)

id m0qsvEq-0007WpC; Thu, 6 Oct 94 10:00 MDT

Received: by cpu.us.dynix.com (AIX 3.2/UCB 5.64/4.03)

id AA95703; Thu, 6 Oct 1994 09:36:58 -0600

Date: Thu, 6 Oct 1994 09:33:02 -700 (MDT)

From: Warren Keith Russell wkr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cpu.us.dynix.com

Subject: Re: replying to individuals

To: American Dialect Society ADS-L[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]uga.cc.uga.edu

In-Reply-To: m0qstiw-0007VnC[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]amlibs.com

Message-Id: Pine.3.05.9410060958.C57716-b100000[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]cpu.us.dynix.com

Mime-Version: 1.0

Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII



On Thu, 6 Oct 1994, Natalie Maynor wrote:



I've been wondering. On other lists I'm on, it's customary to reply to

individuals for some topics; here, messages addressed to individuals

keep getting forwarded to the whole list (eg, about a dozen replies to

Luanne v.m.'s request for assistance/informants

. Is this customary? or are people just unaware of it?



You must be on some unusual lists. This list seems fairly typical to me

in that some people do reply to the individual (e.g., I replied to Luanne

directly, as I'm sure many other people did) and some people reply to the

whole list because they don't notice the 'reply-to' line in the headers

and think they're replying to the individual, or they realize that this

is a low-traffic list and that most of us don't mind seeing their replies,

or they're too lazy to readdress.



I have seen this "rule" most often implemented in Usenet newsgroups,

where messages/articles are stored for a period of time on the server, and

individual messages have a real tendency to clog things up. Once the

original poster has had her question answered, she cannot simply delete

the message, as she can with a mailing-list message.



In Usenet group, private postings to the groups can generate an amazing

number of flames.



***********************************************************************

Keith Russell Personal Messages: KeithR[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]infonaut.com

wkr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]us.dynix.com MagicSpelr[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]aol.com