[GLLUG] [Administrivia] HTML email and Netiquette

[Edward Glowacki]

Please do not send email to the LUG list in HTML format.  There are
several reasons for this, and it is nothing personal:

* Many GLLUG members use text-based mail programs.  Text-based mail
programs generally can't render the HTML, so they just display the
message source.  This looks very ugly and is difficult to read.

* HTML mail doesn't work well with the weekly digests (per Jason Green's
report)

* HTML mail doesn't show up well in the list archives

* Even in GUI mail clients, HTML mail looks considerably different than
normal mail.  Different writing styles are hard enough to make sense of,
let alone having some mail that isn't even formatted the same.  

* HTML mail often specifies the font size and color.  Personally, I end
up seeing blue text that is smaller than my preferred font size.  Not
only is it harder to read, the text is the same color as links, which
makes it difficult to distinguish which text is clickable and which is
not.


Also, one other point of Netiquette, just because I noticed it when
looking at HTML mail messages:

* Don't quote unnecessary material in your replies.  Show as much as
needed to establish context and remove the rest.  The list is being
archived, and most modern mail readers can thread messages, so it is
easy enough to go back and read previous messages as needed.




-- 
Edward Glowacki				glowack2@msu.edu
GLLUG Peon  				http://www.gllug.org
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
                -- Jules de Gaultier