On 24 Nov 1998 15:18:15 -0800, J Greely wrote:

>[I've never understood why people use reply-and-post options; one or
>the other, please!]

We do it as a courtesy - many news-servers are very slow, and the
response may not appear on the original poster's server for days
(and the original poster may miss the response if he/she is not
attending these groups regularly). Most of my responses are of a
helpful/informative nature, I hope, and therefore perhaps of use
to the original poster. Also, responding with both a post and an
e-mail copy offers a ready route for private e-mail responses or
elaborations for things that are best taken off the public NGs.
That is why I bother to copy-and-paste the poster's e-mail address
in the "e-mail box" on my news server software... (BTW, one of my
pet peeves is hopelessly "munged" return e-mail addresses - I often
feel [with returned undelivered e-mail advice] that I shouldn't
have bothered responding to the original poster's question...)
And, gosh, most people do not object to being offered additional
services...! ;-)