Re: I agree. LKS

[Andy Dougherty <doughera@LAFAYETTE.EDU>]

On Thu, 16 Dec 1999, Jim Green wrote:

> > > Please, everyone -- turn off HTML-mail, vcards and other automatic
> > > attachment-generating email settings.
>
> Look folks, Phys-L is not the entire Universe -- It is just too cumbersome
> to remember to turn of styled msgs for recipients who choose to live in the
> 19th C.  As we move into what some ill informed people want to call the
> 21st C, shouldn't our technology move with us?  There are none of us who
> can't get a free copy of an HTML aware reader -- nor is there a school any
> where  -- except in the Texas desert or in Kosevo -- who's IT people can't
> afford the same.

That is too simplistic a view and simply not true.  For some folks, the
mime is already mangled by some intermediate mail system before it reaches
the end user's computer, and there's nothing the end user can do about it.
That intermediate mail system may well be a large expensive-to-replace
system that otherwise functions quite well and so the IT folks are
unwilling or unable to replace it just so users can use HTML or MIME mail.

Or that intermediate system may be mailing list software kindly donated
and administered FOR FREE by someone else.

Or both may mangle attachments.

Further, not all digesting software can handle MIME and attachments. Sure,
that could probably be changed by someone with enough time and talent, but
it's not trivial.

In the meantime, plain-text mail remains the most reliable way to reach
the widest audience.

    Andy Dougherty              doughera@lafayette.edu
    Dept. of Physics
    Lafayette College, Easton PA 18042