On 01.12.12 17:57, Peter Davis wrote:
> the 72-column wrapping "rule" and the non-HTML "rule" can hardly be
> considered "netiquette" except perhaps within this tiny circle.
> Otherwise they are, at best, quaint relics of an earlier era.
There are other bastions of consideration for the reader, not yet
overrun by the ignorant hordes. Consider:
"HTML is not email, and email doesn't contain HTML, so please turn HTML
formatting OFF in your email client. We have filters in place that will
reject your message if your posting contains HTML."
- http://gpl-violations.org/mailinglists.html
You are probably right - we should similarly declare the mutt
community's communication code, if only to help newbies have their posts
read.
Of the many on that page, I think this rule in particular can save the
world man-years of wasted time:
"In general, your reply should contain at least as much text as the
amount of text you are quoting, if not more. Never quote back dozens of
lines of text and simply add a single line of text to the bottom -
people will *hate* you for that!"
It also reduces the world's burden of visible self-indulgent lazy
stupidity.
Given the time we've all invested in this thread, then this rule from
another list is worth publishing, at least in part:
"Plain text, 72 characters per line
Many subscribers and developers read their mail on text-based
mailers (mail(1), emacs, Mutt) and they find HTML-formatted
messages, or lines that stretch beyond 72 characters often
unreadable. Most OpenBSD mailing lists strip messages of MIME
content before sending them out to the rest of the list. If you
don't use plain text your messages will be reformatted or, if they
cannot be reformatted, summarily rejected. The only mailing list
that allows attachments is the ports list, they will be removed from
messages on the other mailing lists."
- http://www.openbsd.org/mail.html
Automatically reformatting or deleting objectionable posts is one way to
obviate the need for a lot of useless discussion, based only on
unwillingness of one or two newbies to respect the cumulative time and
effort of the _many_ readers of their posts.
I herewith move that we publish a netiquette guide, quaint or not (in
the eyes of newbies), on http://www.mutt.org/mail-lists.html. A merging
of the two cited above, edited to remove material specific to the other
lists, might serve as a basis. Any seconders?
Any other guidance, gleaned from other better organised lists than ours?
Just in case ignorance of "No HTML" still abounds, there's:
"Turn off any HTML or Richtext features in your mail program. Don't post
attachments. "
and more, at http://www.procmail.org/era/lists.html
And here's what happened when once HTML sneaked onto the Vim mailing
list via Google Groups:
"I'm not sure if there is a public setting now. I asked the right
question to the right team and they switched the Vim group to plain
text."
- Bram Moolenaar, after HTML was posted to vim_use from Google Groups.
OK, that limited survey hopefully shows that ignorance is not the best
basis for making a claim - the supposedly insular norms are in fact
common to many technical lists. Not that it matters. It is only as an
act of graciousness that informed Mutterers take the trouble to declare
what trash they will not trouble themselves to read. I think that should
be done, and will do any legwork I can, once we generally concur on the
way forward.
That seems a more positive step than just plonking the barbarians at the
gates who refuse to recognise the price of receiving free help. (And
yes, even in this reply, we're doing your research and investigative
thinking for you.)
Erik
--
Hello. Please do not post styled HTML crap with embedded images to this
mailing list (or any mailing list). - LuKreme on procmail-users ML
