At 11:04 AM -0500 2/18/99, Info-LabVIEW List Maintainer wrote:
> And incorrect. Or are you trying to tell me that the NY Times (black text on
> white paper) would be more useful if it contained a bunch of funky
> formatting in the body of each article? I think not. In fact, I KNOW not.
Sigh. why do people try to over-simplify things into uselessness?
There is no single correct design style. Don't believe me? Just look
at the New York Times and Spy Magazine. Forbes or Wired. ESPN
magazine or National Geographic. Heck, for that matter, the New York
Times and the New York Post, or the Los Angeles Times and USA Today.
Can we please quit pretending that the list-managers discussion list
is the only kind of use for e-mail in the known universe?
List-managers and similar lists are the epitomy of text-only e-mail
conversation lists, and most would benefit little from the addition
of styled text (however, I'd also argue that they WOULD benefit, and
would generally benefit more than they'd be hurt. Yes, some people
abuse styled text, but people abuse plain email text, too. Do we not
do anything just because it's potentially abusable?).
But there's more to life than list-managers. Honest. Just like saying
that the New York Times is the only possible definition for printed
text stylistic designs. Taht's not even true in New York City, much
less newspaper publishing, much less publishing in general.
And while we're at it, let's not forget that HTML isn't the only way
to do stylized text in use today, either. it's just one
implementation. So we should take the implementation away and discuss
the concept, which is styled text. HTML is just a version of this.
If all you're doing is a chat list for 1,000 of your closest friends,
you don't need HTML (although I'll bet after you made it available
and everyone got used to it, you'd dislike it a lot less than you'd
admit to now) -- but please, quit pretending that this is the only
kind of e-mail list that exists, and that only things appropriate for
that ought to be considered... Or shall we call up Wired and tell
them to switch to agate type and newsprint and become the New York
Times?
Heck, let's stop all this technological gobbeldygook. Let's strip out
mailtos and URLS, let's take out all of the code that reads mail and
makes clickable links and URLS, let's throw out the spellcheckers and
word wrap and all of these things that actually make using e-mail
easier, and go back to the good old days of /bin/mail. Heck, we don't
need mailx, much less pine. Just like we don't need USA Today. Just
good old New York Times greyware...
> Why is this so difficult to understand?
Well, I dunno. there seems to be a lot going on on all sides that
seem more difficult to understand than we think they should.
> They should be bounced. As should html, vcards and all the rest. Bottom
> line: if it's not signal, it's noise. Configuring your mailer to send plain
> text is a trivial exercise.
Maybe for you, tom. But I'm seeing four or five users a week
completely confused by this now.
> I am involved in managing 8 mailing lists, which
> deliver anywhere from 10 msgs/day to about 600 users (highly technical
> content) to 250 msgs/day to 2000 users (primarily entertainment in nature).
And I run about 200 lists to over a million users. And there's
strong, growing interest in styled text and other enhanced features
-- both from my subscriber base AND from my content creators. Both
sides are pushing me on this these days.
> None allow any of the garbage you support. All have international reader
> bases. All have users with levels of experience ranging from internet "old
> timers" to folks who signed up to AOL for the first time last week. None
> seem to have any problems living by the rules which have been established.
Good for you. Now, can we get past the belief that what works for
your lists by definition will work for all mailing lists in the
universe for all time, and that nothing should ever change ever for
anyone?
--
Chuq Von Rospach (Hockey fan? <http://www.plaidworks.com/hockey/>)
Apple Mail List Gnome (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
Plaidworks Consulting (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED])
<http://www.plaidworks.com/> + <http://www.lists.apple.com/>
Featuring Winslow Leach at the Piano!
