Confusion over to-list v. to-address

["Steven E. Harris" <seh@panix.com>]

[I first posted this to gnu.emacs.gnus, then realized I might stir up
 a better response here.]

I've been canceling several of my mailing list subscriptions and
moving over to the gmane equivalents. Today, for example, I realized
that the ding list is available as gmane.emacs.gnus.general. After
years of using Gnus, I'm still confused over the to-list and
to-address group parameters.

If I subscribe to a gmane newsgroup and want to participate as though
it was a mailing list, should I set to-list or to-address? The Info
section doesn't make it clear. For to-list, it says:

 If this variable is set, `gnus-mailing-list-mode' is turned on when
 entering summary buffer.

That sounds good. But to-address also sounds appropriate:

  Let's say there's a group on the server that is called `fa.4ad-l'.
  This is a real newsgroup, but the server has gotten the articles
  from a mail-to-news gateway.  Posting directly to this group is
  therefore impossible--you have to send mail to the mailing list
  address instead.

There's no substitute for experimentation. With to-list, only fresh
postings go to the right address. All other replies or follow-ups go
only to the original author. With to-address, replies and follow-ups
work mostly as expected, though still different from my "real" mailing
list groups. For the latter, follow-ups get addressed first to the
author and are copied to the list. I usually change this around
manually to avoid copying the author who is obviously subscribed as
well.

I also just noticed the "subscribed" variable. Is that part of the
solution? Please advise.

-- 
Steven E. Harris        :: seh@panix.com