When you reply to someone on a mailing list, your mail software will populate the "To:" address one of two ways: either to the person who wrote the post you're replying to, or to the entire list. This depends on how the list is set up.

There is a very simple way to determine if you're replying to a person or to the whole list (which might be bad if you're giving out your rates). Follow these three simple steps to avoid failing at mailing lists:

1) Read a message.