On Friday 2. September 2016 07.43.09 chadvellacott@sasktel.net wrote:
And I am nearly sure that it HAD occurred to me, in the past, that if aquestion whose answer is likely of interest to others, can be asked and answered PUBLICLY, then that can save time for the person answering, by not having to answer the question twice.
I wouldn't worry too much about what's been done, particularly as it doesn't seem to have been done maliciously. It's also clear that you understand the etiquette here to the extent that the above quote is a good summary of the policy of many mailing lists.
I tend to "reply to list" when my mail program lets me, and to "reply to all" and then remove the personal addresses (leaving only the list address) when it doesn't. When sending a new message, I tend to send it to the list only. Most of the time, the people responding are on the list, especially if they are involved with the project concerned.
Occasionally, I keep anyone responding in "Cc" if they've done that with me, making the assumption that they like doing that. (Generally, I don't like including people in "Cc" and will drop those separate addresses, making sure that things go via the list.)
Some people/lists like short, specific messages on one topic or a couple of topics. Others don't mind longer messages on a few different topics. I tend to write longer messages on several topics if there are a few things I want to mention that don't really merit separate messages. I think the consensus is to keep the value of each message high, such that many single sentence messages (for example) would be annoying and best avoided.
Welcome to the list! :-)
Paul