Re: [PLUG] bouncing html sent to this list ?

[Jeff Abrahamson <jeff@purple.com>]

On Thu, Aug 16, 2001 at 05:56:46PM -0400, Darxus@chaosreigns.com wrote:
> Someone just suggested to me that we should automatically bounce any email
> that is sent to this list in html.  I think this is a fine idea.  
> 
> What do you think ?

Gosh, it annoys you so much that you feel you need to enforce your
aesthetic on everyone?

What are the issues? As I see it, they are

  1. More bytes have to move, wasting resources.
  2. Some mailers, but not mutt, kmail, or any of the sophisticated
     ones, don't know know what to do with html.
  3. It bothers one's sense of order

I think (1) is moot for most of us. And (2) probably isn't that
important, since few enough use mailx to read mail. (Darxus, for
example, I know you use mutt, and mutt will lynx -dump for you so you
don't even need to notice.

    In mailcap:
      text/html;      lynx -dump %s; nametemplate=%s.html; copiousoutput

    In muttrc:
      auto_view text/html

This works so well that I also have mutt dump and inline Word files
(using catdoc). It happens often enough that I don't even notice that
an attachment was in Word format or was html.

So, maybe there are other issues, but I'm left with (3), and I don't
think that's a good reason to push away html users, especially since
beginners are the most likely people to send html to a list.

And by refusing their mail, we also loose an opportunity for educating
people. You don't change the world from an ivory tower.

(No ad hominem meant by the tone of that last paragraph.)

-- 
 Jeff

 Jeff Abrahamson  <http://www.purple.com/jeff/>



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