HTML messages to mailing lists. Problem upgrading ncurses
Stroller
stroller at stellar.eclipse.co.uk
Thu Jul 24 13:36:18 CEST 2008
On 24 Jul 2008, at 03:50, Steven Kurylo wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 23, 2008 at 5:44 PM, Stroller
> <stroller at stellar.eclipse.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> On 24 Jul 2008, at 01:09, Dale Schumacher wrote:
>>>
>>>> Also, could you possibly post to the list in plain text, not HTML?
>>>
>>> Sure, I could. I thought it would be more clear to post the
>>> transcript in fixed font. Doesn't it come through as multi-part-
>>> alternative anyway, so you should have a plain-text version too?
>>> It seems the richer markup is often useful.
>>
>>
>> The fixed-width font you chose ("courier new,monospace"?) is
>> honoured, but comes up as greyish on my mail client (Apple's Mail)
>> and is difficult to read.
>
> So it sounds the problem is with your client.
Arguably is it _in this case_.
However, the fundamental problem with HTML messages is that the
sender tells the recipient's email client what font to use, without
knowing how it will display for the recipeint.
In this case it might be that my mail client doesn't display courier
new terribly well, but next week it'll be someone else who thinks
that green is a great colour in which to compose their email
messages, and the font size they choose will come up 2mm high on my
screen (and probably on yours, too). I can't tell you which of the
lists I subscribe to it was, but this HAS happened on a Linux mailing
list in the last 8 weeks.
> Tell your client,
> assuming its a reasonable client, to only show plain text and not the
> HTML.
I don't wish to do that because commercial HTML messages display
fine, and I like them. (and my client does not allow "enable/disable
HTML by folder, if at all)
I am only requesting that you don't send HTML messages unless you
know they'll display legibly for the majority (>99%) of your readers.
Amazon do this, why can't Dale? I don't mean this, especially not
personally, but I hope you get my point. Plain-text is ALWAYS safe.
> The only argument to skip html is disk space/bandwidth which is rarely
> an issue these days.
We'll have to agree to disagree on that. It's not worth a big
argument, and I'm only requesting a preference, not laying down
"rules" for the list.
I notice that the list's subscription page has an option "Get MIME or
Plain Text Digests?"
I'd be glad to use that if that would stop my whining, but I assume
that it would also strip plain text or gzip'd attachments (presumably
these are also MIME parts?) and I would like to receive .conf or .log
files if they're posted.
Stroller
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