On 31/03/06, Juan Carlos Reyes Pacheco <juancarlosreyesp@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Hi :) > I can be wrong, > > But personally I had seen several people who only answer offline about > database topics, and I must say very good answer that should be done publicly. If you look at the mail headers of a message on the list you'll see that the reply-to header has been set so replies go back to the person who sent it rather than the list. If you look at the list's page on freelists.org you'll see: "In general, the value density of threads is greatest if the initiator asks for responses off the list and then later posts a summary of those responses to the list." I guess that's why the header is set. Personally I disagree with that reasoning, my expereience is that in general debate in public is more valuable and that the initiator rarely posts a summary (or if they do it's just a copy and paste of all the replies into a single mail with no removal of duplicates or inaccuracies). There's also the recruitment factor, if I see a list with lots of long threads I'm more likley to join than I am a list where apparently few if any questions get a response (because responses are off list and initators rarely post a followup). Stephen -- It's better to ask a silly question than to make a silly assumption. http://stephensorablog.blogspot.com/ -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l