Thanks for the explanation. The point about the archive seems to me to be the most persuasive - I see what you mean. Providing the file sharing links stay active that does ensure the archive remains useful without having to "host" additional files on the archive server.
It does seem that removing any attachments automatically would be the best solution. Hopefully Song Zhen's suggestion will help sort that out.
Incidentally, Jon nicely illustrated one of the things about the list that I really appreciate, by posting an interesting link that I hadn't seen before and probably wouldn't have come across otherwise.
Also, I wondered if you could set up SYMPA so that it strips emails of any unnecessary snarkiness (above a predefined threshold)?
Best regards,
Darren
-----Original Message-----
From: alan.he...@neutronoptics.com
Sent: Sat, 9 May 2015 11:39:46 +0200
To: leopo...@fq.edu.uy
Subject: Apologies... The "No Attachment" rule.Dear Rietveld list.Good to see so many people asking for the list to be continued. And even an example of an interesting scientific question immediately answered by an expert. Encouraging.So why do I forbid "sinful" attachments ? (No, it's not because I'm getting old and snarky, though we all do eventually :-) Think of the Rietveld list as a kind of relaxed "Twitter", except that you are not limited to 140 characters. And what about Google's decision this month to favour sites that can be used on a mobile phone ? Yes, even oldies use mobile phones for email. SMS is another example of beauty in brevity.Then the Rietveld Archive is an excellent record of past discussions - without the attachments. Messages that rely on attachments are then often incomprehensible - look up that message on https://www.mail-archive.com/rietveld_l@ill.fr/ Frankly, if you need more than that, put it on a webserver with a link to it. Such links are preserved in the archive.If you see my own warning about "no attachments" as an attachment :-) perhaps you should check how your email client is set up. Or tell me how I can do it differently with SYMPA www.sympa.org I didn't design the mail server nor the mail archive. Clearly, it is difficult to enforce a simple "no attachments" rule, so what would it be like policing a "small attachments" rule ? Even if you personally have lots of space for email, our webserver (for which we don't pay) would still have to distribute ~1500 copies of your "small attachment".In this particular case, a figure from an unpublished paper was published and criticised out of context. Is that really fair? If it's from a referee's copy we shouldn't even refer to it, let alone publish it. If it's a pre-print, just publish a link to it. But there are already plenty of examples in the published literature if you are looking for evidence of regression.So where are the "Apologies"? There are none :-) "Excuse me" is what people say when they elbow their way through a crowd. (I only do that when I really need to). So if you really need to attach a document, go ahead. After all, you can still read the list on the archive.Alan______________________________________________Dr Alan Hewat, NeutronOptics, Grenoble, FRANCE<alan.he...@neutronoptics.com> +33.476.98.41.68
http://www.NeutronOptics.com/hewat
______________________________________________
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Please do NOT attach files to the whole list <alan.he...@neutronoptics.com> Send commands to <lists...@ill.fr> eg: HELP as the subject with no body text The Rietveld_L list archive is on http://www.mail-archive.com/rietveld_l@ill.fr/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
