[Catalyst] html mail (was: reserved words)

[Thomas L. Shinnick]

At 12:53 PM 3/8/2007, Jason Kohles wrote:
>On Mar 8, 2007, at 5:09 AM, Goetz Bock wrote:
>>Dear subscribers,
>>
>>while totally of topic, could you please _try_ to write mails that can
>>be read with a good old text (as in text/plain) only mail reader?
>[snip]
>>I've intentionally placed my part on top, as it's unrelated to the thread.
>>And I've kept an edited and annotated version of the mail I replied to
>>underneath to illustrate how it looks in my MUA (mutt).
>Ok, so you don't like the way this mail is displayed by your mail 
>reader, and therefore in order to get mail displayed in your mail 
>reader the way you want it, the rest of the world must change?

Surprised at this or no, this is a very long-standing issue, from 
BBSes to usenet to maillists and on to today.

Two main issues:

Top-posting distorts the stream of conversation.  Double conventions 
_really_ distorts the stream of conversations.  The 
"industry-standard" (with all the drawbacks of that term intact here) 
way of replying to posts is to use bottom-posting, so that replies 
are time-ordered, or using interspersed replies to lengthy sets of questions.

Not every mail reader can handle every text/non-text formatting 
option.  Thus it borders on 'rude' to force acceptance of your 
favorite elaboration of modes of expression.  At the very least have 
your email program sent mixed "plain text" plus "gussied-up goo".

The key is "what guarantees that the conversation can continue in a 
recognizable and useful way?"
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