How to really reply to all in Gmail?

Question

I receive mails through a distribution list (Google Group) from people that do not belong to the list (it's explicitly allowed that they can send us mails without belonging to the group).

The problem is that if I hit "reply to all", the sender is not included in the reply, only the group and other CC'd addresses are, and I need to manually add them.

Is there some way to configure Gmail to add them? Via a Lab or something else at least?

Answer 1

I found that the only way to "fix" this is from the groups settings, apparently it's a feature.

Selecting the last option fixed my problem. You have to be an admin in the group to do it though, but you can always ask the admin to do it for you if you're not.

Answer 2

Updated:

Change your Group’s reply setting

1. Open Google Groups.
2. Click My Groups > name of the group you want to edit.
3. Click Manage in the upper-right corner.
4. From the left-hand navigation menu, click Settings > Email Options > Post Replies.
5. Use the drop-down menu to select a choice, then click Save in the upper-left corner.

Menu Option Setting Description To the entire group: Automatically send email replies to everyone in the Group.

To the author of the message only: The person who sent the original message sees the email reply.

To the owners of the group: Only Group owners see the email reply.

To the managers of the group: Only Group managers see the email reply.

Users decide where their replies are sent (Default): Let the author choose who sees their email reply.

• Selecting “Reply” will send their response to the person who sent the original message.
• Selecting “Reply all” will send their response to the entire Group, as well as the author of the original message.

Answer 3

I don't think this is possible. The email will be a redirect through the group so it will not store the sender's details in the same way as the other email addresses.