Can we disable replies to a posting?
¿ªÔÆÌåÓýThis may be an odd question, but I would appreciate any ideas.My group has a problem with replies to messages. Most messages are sent by one of the three owners of the group, though we do want each subscriber to have the ability to post if they choose to. The problem arises when the subscribers receive a message from an owner and want to reply. The replies are frequently not meaningful to the entire group and intended only for the sender, often along the lines of ¡°Thank you¡± or ¡°Can I get more information?¡±. But when a subscriber hits REPLY, their response goes to all 700+ members of the group. And some of them are getting pretty cranky about it. Before we transferred over from our Yahoo Group, we solved this problem by putting the Yahoo Group email address on the bcc line, in which case the reply only went to the individual who sent it. In our new group, even when the message was sent with the ?address on the bcc line, if the subscriber hits REPLY, it goes to the entire group. In fact, there¡¯s a line at the top of the note that looks like this: So, my question is: is there a way to change this in some system setting so that the reply only goes to the sender. Or, alternatively, is there a way to disable replies completely so that a response to the sender would have to be done by forwarding the note to the individual¡¯s email address? I can alert our members to the difference in the system, but I know that won¡¯t work, at least not for long. People automatically just hit REPLY. I think I need to proactively stop them at a group level. Thank you. |
|
There is a reply to sender option at the bottom of each email message. Can you educate your members about it and encourage them to use it when appropriate? MKR On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 1:05 PM Gary Gabaccia <ggabaccia@...> wrote:
|
|
On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 01:05 PM, Gary Gabaccia wrote:
is there a way to change this in some system setting so that the reply only goes to the sender.You could change the setting for Reply To under Message Policies to Sender.? That swings the pendulum the other way though so there's no response posted on the group. You could also educate the members about the links at the bottom of messages.? There should be a Reply to Sender link there. There's not an easy way to do both. Duane -- Help: /static/help GMF's Wiki: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki Search button at the top of Messages list A few site FAQs: /static/pricing#frequently-asked-questions |
|
Keep in mind that some lists you are on such as one for example I got banned from as the owner hates me, long story, don't have the reply to sender option. I have now forgotten nwy as that conversation was sometime last year on either this group or the beta group, or maybe it was group help. But I know about but never use these options, but instead log onto the site and hit reply to sender. More than one way to skin a cat and so forth. Sarah Alawami, owner of TFFP. On 19 Nov 2019, at 11:11, Duane wrote:
?
?
?
|
|
On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 1:05 PM Gary Gabaccia <ggabaccia@...
<mailto:ggabaccia@...>> wrote: The problem arises when the subscribers receive a message from anSo, how about educating the moderators to always add a hashtag to the ends of their posts' subject lines -- a hashtag that is moderated? Not all members who reply to posts will keep the subject line intact, but for those that do, the replies should be stopped before they reach the list. I'm no expert at hashtags, but is that how hashtags work? Samuel [Apparently it's also possible to use hashtags to override the reply preferences (set the group to "reply to group" but a certain hashtag makes all replies to that one topic go "reply to sender", or vice versa), but I have been unable to achieve this in my tests. In fact, I have been unable to get "reply to sender" to work at all -- all test e-mails for which I hit the "reply" button in my mail program gets sent back to the list, and the original sender's e-mail address is nowhere.] |
|
On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 02:05 PM, Gary Gabaccia wrote:
So, my question is: is there a way to change this in some system setting so that the reply only goes to the sender. Or, alternatively, is there a way to disable replies completely so that a response to the sender would have to be done by forwarding the note to the individual¡¯s email address? I can alert our members to the difference in the system, but I know that won¡¯t work, at least not for long. People automatically just hit REPLY. I think I need to proactively stop them at a group level.Gary -- As Duane said, you can change the default behavior to "Reply to Sender" in your group settings (Message Policies>Reply To). This assumes that each email client your subscribers use honors the reply-to field in the message header, though. If you have a few folks whose software ignores this and instead replies to the From: field, you might have to put those on moderation. If you also UNcheck the "Remove Other Reply Options" box, there will be a "reply to group" link in each message footer, so those who really do need to reply to the group can conveniently do so. Hope this helps, Bruce |
|
On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 05:24 PM, Chris Jones wrote:
One thing puzzles me; in configuring a Hashtag there is a Reply To setting which has several options; one is Reply to sender and another is Reply only to sender. For the life of me I am hard pressed to see the difference; please don't tell me it is glaringly obvious...:)With respect to the hashtags, "Reply to Sender" does what the Reply-To field in the group settings does...set the message header field. "Reply Only to Sender" actually blocks?any replies that come back to the group, effectively locking the topic. Bruce |
|
Too many posts about educating users. The OP said it didn't work and I agree. I regularly pruned our Yahoo group to delete the inadvertent personal messages and I never could educate the users, even the repeat offenders.. The real problem comes from email users--99% of all users. It's an email. John Doe sent it. They want to respond to John. So they hit Reply in their mail agent?just as they would for any other email. They never look at the choices at the bottom of the email. Setting a Reply-To tag in the header of the email (not visible in most mailers unless you select "View raw email" or "Display full headers) should work if it's done properly. If someone want to set that option and post full headers of an email like that, we can look at it. Set the option to display full? headers and copy/paste it into a post here. Larry |
|
Yes, but who actually reads those, except for the firs time. I will admit I never do and mark all of those as read. Even theeones to my own lists I run. Blessings. Sarah Alawami, owner of TFFP. . On 19 Nov 2019, at 12:31, VickieS wrote:
?
?
?
|
|
On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 04:57 PM, Laurence Marks wrote:
Too many posts about educating users.Well, GIO isn't YG (thankfully), so users and moderators will need to learn the way things work here.? On my groups, I post the rules when they join, as well as monthly.? For anyone that can't follow them, all of their posts get moderated, not just the first one.? Amazing how quickly people are willing to learn when it gets in their way.? I have 2 people that are on permanent moderation because they still haven't learned (and apparently don't care because 90% of their posts get rejected.)? Not bad out of ~2000 members. Duane -- Help: /static/help GMF's Wiki: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki Search button at the top of Messages list A few site FAQs: /static/pricing#frequently-asked-questions |
|
Duane wrote:
Great if it works for you. I'm not sure I want to spend that much time moderating, especially if groups.io could fix this with a 5-minute code change. I'm still waiting to see full headers from someone who has set the appropriate options. Larry |
|
Larry,
I'm still waiting to see full headers from someone who has setExample 1: To: [email protected]Note the lack of a Reply-To: field. It isn't needed because in this case the reply should go to the From address. Example 2: From: "Shal's name via Groups.Io" <shalstest_new@...>Note this time there is a Reply-To field. It is required in cases where the sender's email address has been munged for DMARC. The From field contains an address which won't accept messages, but will satisfy Yahoo Mail's demand that lists not send messages "From" them. /static/help#dmarc Shal -- Help: /static/help More Help: /g/GroupManagersForum/wiki Even More Help: Search button at the top of Messages list |
|
On Tue, Nov 19, 2019 at 08:00 PM, Laurence Marks wrote:
I'm not sure I want to spend that much time moderating, especially if groups.io could fix this with a 5-minute code change.I don't spend an inordinate amount of time moderating those groups.? Usually once or twice a day I check for approvals needed since I do everything online.? Mark doesn't make any changes unless they're well thought out and won't break something else, so your 5 minute code change may take several days minimum (if it's ever done.)? The point is there are ways around most problems and just because it's always been done one way doesn't mean that's the only way.? I find it refreshing to see things done differently (and usually better.) Duane |
Duane
Sarah k Alawami
Samuel Murray
Bruce
Laurence Marks
Shal Farley