This, this is why I hate Gmail. On Sun, Oct 22, 2017 at 7:23 PM, Alexis Hunt <aler...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 21 Oct 2017 at 20:11 Kerim Aydin <ke...@u.washington.edu> wrote: > >> >> >> On Sat, 21 Oct 2017, Ørjan Johansen wrote: >> > In a below quoted message of 19 October, ATMunn succeeded in >> changing >> > eir votes. >> >> This is CFJ 3581. I assign it to Alexis. >> >> >> > Argument: The plain text version of the message has atrocious >> formatting, >> > looking like all votes are from the quoted part from 16 October, not new >> > content. >> > > The original message is stored in the archives here: > > https://mailman.agoranomic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/private/ > agora-business/2017-October/036487.html > > Note that this page shows the text/plain part by default; the text/html > portion can be viewed by clicking the link at the bottom, although this > presents a sanitized version of the page, causing serious encoding issues. > > This case relates to CFJ 3572, where o draws attention to the fact that a > multipart/alternative message such as ATMunn's must include multiple > versions of the same information. Based on the logic of that case, it must > be the case that a player cannot perform an action clearly or unambiguously > if it differs between parts of a multipart/alternative message. Thus, in > order for ATMunn's vote change to be valid, it must be clear exactly what > votes e was changing and how in both the plain text and HTML versions of > the message. > > So what do each say? The HTML version of the message has each of the votes > at two levels of quoting deep. That is to say, the votes are written so > that they appear in the quoted message beginning with "Oops". > > By contrast, the text/plain version precedes each vote by a mess of > indentation: > > >>>> 7922* Alexis 3.0 Clarity Act Alexis 1 > =AP > >>> > >>> =E2=80=8BFOR=E2=80=8B > >> > >>> 7923* Gaelan 1.0 Another Economy Fix Attempt Gaelan 1 > A=P > >>> > >>> AGAINST. I transfer Alexis another shiny (bringing my total up to 2) in > >> an obvious bribe, again. > >> > > Note the use of the greater-than signs, to indicate levels of quotation. > Each line containing a vote is preceded by three levels quotation, although > subsequent lines (including a continuation of the previous line, in the > second example) are indented by only two. > > From a strictly semantic point of view, these messages are not identical. > The quoting expressed in the plain text portion is different from the HTML > portion. As a result, this is enough to consider them suspect. > > However, evaluating the two messages in context of the outer messages, > namely "I change my vote as follows:" and the TTttPF around that, it is > clear that ATMunn's intent is to change eir votes. The only reasonable > interpretation of the plain-text message is that e is changing eir votes to > the ones listed; the weird formatting does not change that there is a clear > list of proposals to be voted on and votes to be cast. This list of votes > accords between the plain-text and HTML versions. Consequently, ATMunn's > message is saved by the fact that the interpretation of eir actions---the > actual semantic content from the point of view of the game---is clear and > identical in both versions of the message. If there were, say, additional > votes being quoted elsewhere in the message, it's quite possible that the > formatting issues would cause the plain text to become unclear and, > subsequently, the entire attempt to fail. > > Accordingly, I judge TRUE. > > Issues regarding MIME email have been more and more common as of late, and > not in a good way. If the above judgment is left to stand, it's quite > possible that a player could scam by deliberately sending different plain > text and HTML portions with actions just different to cause them all to > fail, while convincing all players who do not read both parts (which > includes those who use only text) that they have performed an action. > > It was recently brought to my attention that Mailman, the software running > the Agoran mailing lists, is capable of removing all parts of messages that > are not plain text. As a result, I propose the following and pend it for 1 > shiny: > > Proposal: HTML Scrubbing (AI=1) > {{{ > The Distributor is hereby requested to enable the Mailman feature(s) to > strip non-plain-text parts of emails sent by the agoranomic.org mailing > lists. > }}} > > And, since I'm here, I'll also propose the following and pend it for 1 > shiny: > > Proposal: No List Prefixes (AI=1) > {{{ > The Distributor is hereby requested to disable the DIS, BUS, and OFF > prefixes automatically added to mail sent by the agoranomic.org mailing > lists. > }}} > > Personally, I don't find them useful; they obscure subject lines, are not > useful for searching or filtering (because they cannot be added more than > once when a thread bounces back between -business and -discussion), and > just make things look ugly with e.g. Fwd: DIS: Re: BUS: Re: OFF: Whatever. > They also make outgoing mail have a different prefix from the returned mail > from the mailing list, which confuses my client, at least. Because they > don't actually impart useful information consistently, I personally think > there's little value to including them so I'll put that up for vote too. > > Then I claim a reward of 1 shiny back for judging the CFJ. > > -Alexis >
