Matthias Kirschner mk@fsfe.org writes:
I just published a blog entry [1]. Although I explained this topic a lot of times in the past I never wrote down the most basic principles of e-mail usage. Now I finally did it so I can point friends who are news in the Free Software community to this short guide. If you find it useful I will add it to wiki.fsfe.org.
That's very good (with Sergey's correction), thank you for taking the time to write it.
- *Mailinglists* Use list-reply. It is not necessary to include the sender in To: or Cc: if he is subscribed. If the e-mail programs are configured correct the sender will be Cc’ed if he is not subscribed or wishes to be Cc’ed.
(In English, it's “mailing lists”, two words not one.)
Perhaps make the point that if your mail client doesn't *have* a “reply to list” operation, it's best to pressure the vendor to add this standard feature and/or switch to one that does have it. But that might be too much for this guide.
- *General remark* The better you structure an e-mail and the better you present the content — the higher is the chance that people will read your e-mail.
I would prefer this to be phrased to encourage thinking about the message from the reader's point of view. A sentiment like “make your message easy for someone else to read so that more people will easily read it”, phrased in your own words.