posting to SPALS

Please think carefully where to send your reply A representative comment from a SPALS member: << It seems more and more members are replying through SPALS, rather than to the individual they are addressing. With so many members and so many meaningful group discussions, the extra traffic that individual replies add is sometimes overwhelming. My email account is at work, and when I log in from home it takes a while to load all the new messages. >> It can be tricky, especially for a new member, to gauge whether to respond through the group, or directly to the posting member. Generally, we recommend responding directly to the posting member of SPALS -- and only posting to the group if it appears we can contribute to (or initiate) a general discussion on a topic of broad interest (or, of course, if we have a question). The Majordomo listserver that processes SPALS is set up so that, with most mail readers, the default reply goes to the original poster. The volume of email is one concern -- but another, is that a response through the list might reveal additional personal information about the original poster that they may not appreciate.