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Re: Band width (fwd)

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
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