[TowerTalk] Replying to the list...AGAIN!

[Pete Smith]

At 04:01 PM 7/21/2004, Keith Dutson wrote:
> >Not to speak for the administrator of this list, but if you don't like the
>way this list is operated, there are other tower reflectors.
>
>I would like to try another, if the default is to list.  Can you refer me?
>Thanks.


There are others, but none nearly so good as this.  Fragmentation would be 
a terrible mistake, IMO, leading to cross-posting and other techniques that 
do nothing but raise the noise level.  I've been a denizen since 1995 (I 
think) when the list started, and was even admin for a time.  I remember 
that back then there was a lot of concern on the part of users that they 
would get too much volume over slow dial-up connections, and therefore the 
considerate practice was for someone to ask a question, seek replies 
off-line, and promise to do a summary for the list.  That worked pretty well.

I like having the option of replying to the sender rather than to the list 
as a whole.  Some lists I'm on default to reply to the list and do not, so 
far as I can ascertain, permit replying just to the sender, other than 
through a series of manual steps.  To my mind, that's a strait-jacket that 
serves nobody's interest.  If a question is of narrow interest, or if I'm 
not sure that my response will be 100 percent correct, I'd rather send it 
direct than have it broadcast and remain in the archive forever, possibly 
without reference to any subsequent correction.

My e-mail program provides for "reply" and "reply all" functions, which 
makes it quick and easy to differentiate.  As long as I continue to have a 
fairly easy option to reply direct, I could care less if the default is one 
or the other.


73, Pete N4ZR
The World HF Contest Station Database
was updated on June 5, 2004
2728 contest stations at
www.pvrc.org/WCSD/WCSDsearch.htm