Recipient list on FreeBSD mailing lists

[David Scheidt]

On Wed, Mar 01, 2006 at 04:50:56PM +0800, Ow Mun Heng wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 2006-03-01 at 03:33 -0500, Parv wrote:
> > in message <1141197872.28549.3.camel at neuromancer.home.net>, wrote Ow
> > Mun Heng thusly...
> > >
> > > PS : why is it that this list To's the replies directly to the
> > > person answering and cc's the list instead of To'ing the list
> > > only??
> 
> >   The guideline is to copy both the OP and the list as not everybody
> >   who posts a message is subscribed.
> 
> I see. So that's the rules of this mail-list. er.. does this also mean
> that everyone can post to this list w/o registering?

Yes.  This is a support list; making people subscribe places a big
barrier to support...

> 
> Various other mailing lists dictates that posters reply to the list and
> not the list _and_ the OP.
> 
> Guess this is different.
> 
> I still prefer for messages to be sent to the list.

Most people reading FreeBSD mailing lists are doing so in their spare
time, or are only following things they find interesting.  I delete 99%
of -questions without reading it, because I know from the subject
lines that someone will already have answered the question before I
get around to reading -questions, which is maybe two or three times a
week.  I expect that's typical.  CC'ing the recipient helps insure
that they see the response.  

David