Re: [Paddlewise] Missing posts and text formatting

On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 08:40:52AM +1000, PeterO wrote:
> Does the use of 'rich text' or 'html' formatting prevent posts from being
> received?

In many cases, yes; in other cases, it prevents them from being transmitted;
in still others, it prevents them (effectively) from being read.

Since I'm not the keeper of this list particular list, and therefore don't
have access to its configuration or log files, I can't talk about the
specifics in play in this particular case.  However, I can speak about
mailing lists in general because I've been running them for 30 years.

Best practice is to use ASCII text, and only ASCII text, with an
80-column line wrap for readability, for all email messages, period.
This is especially true when submitting traffic to a mailing list,
as you, the sender, don't know the fine details of the list's
configuration, nor will you -- for a properly-run list -- be able
to see the errors generated, because they'll be sent to the list-owner,
not to you.  Thus is you choose to use HTML markup (which all mail
clients, without exception, do a horrible job of creating), you're
not going to see the problems it creates -- which sometimes leads people
to think those problems don't exist.  But they do.

Messages that aren't ASCII text may be refused or held for list-owner
attention by the mailing list; they will likely be scored higher by
anti-spam mechanisms; they may be quarantined or stripped of HTML
markup by mail filters; they may be refused by recipient mail servers;
and they may be unintelligible to security-conscious users (of which
I'm one) who deliberately mail clients that don't interpret HTML.

So: ASCII text, 80-column line wrap.  For further details (rendered
in a tongue-in-cheek way):

	ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/faqs/mail/miss-mailers

---rsk
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