Reply Policy on the Siouan List

[Koontz John E]

This might be a good time to remind people that the Siouan List (like a
lot of lists) is set so that the specified reply address is the list.
There are pros and cons to this, but I've observed in the past that lists
that set reply to the sender tend to be very quiet, as all replies go to
the original poster, and not to the list.

A few general words of advice:  When replying to email it's a usually a
good idea to glance at the To-field before sending.  Of course, my least
favorite mailers use for the "send immediately" key some combination that
means "skip to end of line" in some other mailer that I have to use a lot.
This makes it easy to miss your chance to glance.  Of course, who
remembers to glance, anyway?

In general, be aware that replying might address a letter not to an
author, but to a list on which a letter has been posted, or to the
original author of something that has been forwarded - which is why it's
not wise to forward somebody's letter to make fun of it, or to make fun of
a forwarding to a forwarder without checking the To-field carefully.

Another ambush can be having a reply go to all recipients of a letter sent
to several people, when you only wanted to reply to, say, the original
sender.

I myself have discovered that some mail programs helpfully add all aliases
examined in the address book to the current letter without asking.

It can also be risky to blind copy someone a letter, as some mailers
permit.  Sooner or later you will forward a copy to the wrong person in
which the blind copy address is included.

Also remember that all email archives are subject to subpoena.  This is a
principle they keep forgetting at, e.g., Microsoft.  For that matter, our
archives are public.