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I want to respond to this publicly, because I think we need some concensus. Perhaps the LIST ADMIN should
advise...
As I imagine John did, I have assumed that the main purpose of responding off-list was to prevent deluging the
list with comments or information which may be only of limited interest to others. It is then courteous and
helpful of the recipient to summarize the information if he feels it was useful, and wants to share it. That
way, everyone can choose whether to read one message, and not 30. Since private replies to save bandwidth and
subsequent summaries to the list appear to be common practice, I would expect that anyone who does not want
their reply to be redistributed (unless it was obviously of a personal or confidential nature) should state so
explicitly, especially if the information provided was of a technical, or fairly "neutral" or impersonal
nature (i.e., not political commentary, one's opinion of how stupid one of the responses was, commiseration,
congratulations, etc.). If I write you a personal note, I don't expect to see it posted to the list. If I
respond to your "call for info" and provide you with some technical or non-personal information, then I don't
think any special permission should be required to redistribute same. If I were that sensitive about it, I
shouldn't have risked sending it in the first place.
