Keith Moore [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] wrote:
> > As Adam Bailey points out, the Internet credo (honored in the breach by
> > tiros) is liberal acceptance, conservative emission. In this case that
> > means that what SHOULD happen is
> > (a) email reading software should aggressively escape or
> > "quote" HTML and similar markups found in incoming mail
> > by default, rather than attempting to render them, except
> > where the user has permitted otherwise;
>
> this is one of the stupidest things I've ever read. [[A]]
>
> subject header fields are, and always have been PLAIN TEXT. Not HTML.
> Anything that interprets them as HTML is broken, and that's what needs
> to be fixed. [etc]
Always glad to make someone's superlative list :) but the above comment is
indicative of a common problem here on List-Managers. No matter how much
fun it is to conduct kitchen table debates over the merits/demerits of
various email reading software, that's not a List Management issue. We are
not in a position to "correct" the behavior of software like AOL. It is out
there and most of us, with real lists to run, have to live with it.
We need to focus on what we can control. We can't control what email
readers do. We can't control what intermediate MTA's do. And any list
manager who says, in effect, "well that's their problem, I'm not going to
change anything when they have a bug" is doing a disservice to her or his
members. We all have our own standards and principles, but according to
mine, the members come first.
> > (b) email sending software should avoid the use of SGML/HTML
> > "lookalike" markups for their own purposes, and quote/escape
> > any SGML/HTML they do need to send, except in an appropriate
> > MIME envelope.
>
> yeah right. since when does AOL have change control over RFC 822?
It's hard to answer this, since RFC822 is not a factor (as already
discussed), and AOL is not the email sending software in this case, and in
any case it would hardly affect either RFC822 or AOL if an email sending
package (like BestServ) made a design decision not to use pointys in the
Subject header. Non sequitur alert??
> to me this sounds like grounds for a class action lawsuit.
Cf. [[A]] above! :)
