[Novalug] blocked mail (Peter Larsen)

[Peter Larsen]

On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 02:06:15PM -0400, Roger W. Broseus wrote:
> The issue is bigger than as presented: when I embed URLs in a message, and at 
> other times, it gets converted to a link that readers must click on to see the 
> message. This take me to a page of text with embedded html! And, I wonder if 
> readers even bother to go to such links, given that they are easily confused 
> with other gobbledygook in messages.

Not sure what reader you're using, but I would suggest making sure it's up-to-date
and configured correct. Most mails that goes through mail-man are text only. It's 
the way we've run mailing lists for more than a decade. HTML is not meant for emails 
and quite a few of us will filter out html or only display ascii rendered versions that ignores
everything from scripts, css etc.

Email is supposed to be text - it's safer, more secure and takes up less space.

Since you're reading the digest (appears in the content of this email) you're also a bit
"handicapped" in regards to flexibility. Most people simply gets the direct mail, and filters the 
mailing lists to folders, and from there it's easy to follow threads and reply. This is a
built in feature to all the MUAs I know (on Linux) and is very easy to setup. If you haven't tried it
I would recommend it. I think you'll find that communicating on mailing lists is a lot easier that way.

> As for the easiest way to few bits going into in-boxes, well, that's up to 
> readers who reply without chopping off the endless streams of quoted and 
> re-quoted and re-re-quoted and re . . . re-quoted discussion.

Again, you should make sure your MUA is properly configured. Some allows you to collabse 
quotes and with a bit of dicipline when you answer, quoting is easy. It DOES involve taking out
text you are not relying to. There's no reason to resend mails that we all already have.

> Of course this is not directed at personally at Peter.

None taken. We have to remember, that mailing lists is an old old technology from before we had
WWW. It's proven, it works and it's efficient. But it also shows it's age. While social media sites
today enforces other mechanisms for communication, with mail and particular mailing lists, it's still
up to the contributor to manage the format and content. 

Regards
  Peter Larsen