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Re: Band width (fwd)

Responding to the message of Fri, 23 May 97 5:38:41 PDT
from Duncan McAlpine <dm2477@lab3.ca.boeing.com>:
> 
> Please read to help prevent this on the mailing list. Info only sorry
> for being out of scope.
> 
> 
> > Quoth Susan Granquist, on 22-May-97:
> > > I have a couple of users who are complaining about weird attachments
> > > appearing on the list and with a lot of headers. I've posted asking 
> > > people
> > > to make sure that some of these features are turned off, but we still 
> > > seem
> > > to be having problems.  Any suggestions?
> > 
> > I've seen this happen on a number of mailing lists, and it was also
> > mentioned in a review of Netscape Communicator in this week's issue
> > of _InformationWeek_ magazine.  What happens is, Communicator (and
> > probably other programs too, but Communicator is widely used) allows
> > users to send messages with special formatting -- boldface, italics,
> > colored text, and so on.  But even if special formatting isn't used,
> > Communicator, by default, turns the mail message into a string of
> > HTML, which it attaches (with a Content-Type of "text/html") to a
> > plain text version of the message.  What you get is two copies of the
> > same message sent in one e-mail; one copy is readable and the other
> > is littered with HTML tags.
> > 
> > Here's what _InformationWeek_ says, on page 66:
> > 
> >    Another thing to look out for is Netscape's use of HTML for rich
> >    text in messages.  The default text editor for the Messenger mail
> >    client is essentially Communicator's Composer HTML editor.  This
> >    makes it easy to create pretty E-mail applications based on HTML
> >    forms, but it also makes for huge E-mail messages.  A sure way to
> >    annoy anyone not using Communicator is to send them a long E-mail
> >    message in both plain text and HTML format -- the default send
> >    mode for Communicator mail.
> > 
> > This is a nuisance for anybody who isn't using Communicator, but it's
> > especially bothersome for people who are on a mailing list's digest
> > format, most of whom end up having to scroll through what's
> > effectively a scrambled version of each e-mail written with
> > Communicator.  And of course, for people who pay for connect time by
> > the minute, having to download duplicate copies of the same e-mail
> > can add substantially to the cost.
> > 
> > As list owner, you can't do anything about it -- it's the user's job
> > to figure out how to turn it off.  (and it can be turned off, so if
> > they say it can't, they haven't looked deep enough into the online
> > help.)  You can block such messages from being posted to the list by
> > adapting my recipe for diverting attachments, but that only keeps it
> > off the list and puts the burden of solving their problems on you.
> > 
> > I recommend that you ask those who complain to you about the messages
> > to gently nag (in private e-mail -- not on-list) the people who are
> > posting the offending messages to turn off this "feature."  Another
> > post to the list explaining what's happening and asking offenders to
> > please turn off the feature might also help.
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Jon
> > 
> > -- 
> > 
> -- 
> Sincerely,  
> 
> Duncan McAlpine  
> 
> 
> Could you please take me off of the list, as I will not be able to check 
it this summer.  Thank You
Tracey
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