On Thu, Oct 24, 2002 at 09:27:31AM -0700, Daniel Goldin wrote: > David Wheeler is a self-professed Linux newbie, attempting to install > Redhat for the first time. Singling him out--however gently--seems to > me a bigger breach of etiquette than sending email in html form. Not > the kind of welcome one would hope to get from an open-source > community.
Sorry Dan, but pointing out to people that they should change the way they are posting is actually the recommended thing to do according to the netiquette experts: Eric S. Raymond, Author of "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" wrote a document about how to ask smart questions. Its a superbly helpful document and it can be found here: http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html This is a quote from that paper: ... "Community standards do not maintain themselves: They're maintained by people actively applying them, visibly, in public. Don't whine that all criticism should have been conveyed via private mail: That's not how it works. Nor is it useful to insist you've been personally insulted when someone comments that one of your claims was wrong, or that his views differ. .... " Also I note that the tone of that suggestion was pretty polite. David is clearly an Ok guy and probably just needs to know that he should post in text only. There are very good reasons for not using html when posting to an email list some of which are explained below: Quoted from the RedHat Install Email List Guide: .... Email formatting is very simple. Plain text, around 72 columns wide. Please avoid posting in HTML or MIME. Here's why - As the author of an email you have no idea what kind of email client, (the program email gets read in), the people who get your email will be using. This means there is no way of knowing if their email program can display your email. If it can't - they can't help you. With the new wireless devices and PDA's that are becoming popular, (yes, with Linux too), this problem is becoming even more of an issue. Plain text is the only email format you can use that guarantees it will readable by all the people who receive it. Many of the most helpful and knowledgeable people on this list won't even read your email if its in HTML or MIME format. Sorry, its nothing personal, just too much of a hassle and a security danger for them. (HTML|MIME mail can have embedded info gathering or virus dangers). Many people around the world have metered internet access where they pay for each byte of data they receive, including their email, on a per-byte basis. MIME and HTML formatting increase the size of messages but don't add any information to them. Many Linux users won't even open HTML/MIME email messages because of the extra security dangers and work involved. Because of these issues you should not send HTML or MIME based email to this list. (and you should avoid it whenever possible in general). As a further benefit - not using HTML or MIME when you don't have to will actually speed up how fast your email goes out. Whats that you say? Your email program does the HTML or MIME formatting automatically and you don't know how to stop it ? ............. SNIPPED ======================================================================== Section IV. Fixing your email program ======================================================================== To find out how to configure your email programs to NOT send HTML/MIME look at this web page: http://expita.com/nomime.html (go down 2 or 3 pages for the list) -- Jeff Kinz, Emergent Research, Hudson, MA. "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" copyright 2002. Use is restricted. Any use is an acceptance of the offer at http://users.rcn.com/jkinz/policy.html. (o- -o) //\ eLviintuaxbilse /\\ V_/_ _\_V -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@;redhat.com?subject=unsubscribe https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
