Greetings...

Well... the group-admin might say something to complete the
following :-)

Change the way of receiving the e-mails from the list to TEXT
only
It worked for me.

I'm no longer "group admin", but . . .

It's probably going to depend on which e-mail program someone
uses. Brent said he used Eudora. I have (but rarely use) the
free version, but it is some different from the paid-for version,
which I have never seen. M'soft's Outlook Express (which I use)
is similar to, but still different from, M'soft's Outlook, which
I deleted from my copy of M'soft's Word because it is the King of
all Virus lures -- EVERYone aims for Outlook. Outlook Express is
vulnerable, too, but I know it well, and take needed precautions.
I didn't need Outlook lurking in the background.

Of course, the Mac is somethin' else entirely. It is pure luck
that Apple computers can send and receive e-mail. (And, we do
not need to hear from irate Macophiles!) Mac formats ARE
different!

Anyway, if you set Outlook Express to receive Text only, that's
what you will get, but in mail from folks who send their e-mail
in HTML or other odd formats (Yahoo/Hotmail/some AOL/MSN/ and
whatever WebTV is these days) you also will get an attachment.
Open it and it is the HTML/(whatever) version of the message.
However, other messages also come with attachments -- sometimes
nasty ones -- so IMHO, folks who send email in other than text
only are doing a great disservice to recipients (in this case,
the list -- which is set up to ONLY accept text messages, hence
[I suspect, but don't know] Brent's mysterious attachments). ALL
mail programs (even Hotmail) can be set to send TEXT only.
(That's how they can claim to comply with "Internet Standards.")

So.

As I understand it -- and my understanding is quite likely to be
at least partially faulty -- News Groups AND e-mail were
originally designed to pass messages back and forth in TEXT ONLY
FORMAT. Text still is the mail and news Standard. However,
M'soft and others (including Apple) in their "wisdom" have
devised means to send e-mail and news posts in other,
non-standard, formats so that they can be received that way IF
SOMEONE HAS A MAIL OR NEWS READER THAT CAN ACCEPT IT. If not,
they receive a pageful of "Greek" characters, or they get text
(which is nice) but they also get that damned suspicious
attachment.

[An aside: I have Outlook Express set to send ALL e-mail with
attachments to a "QUESTIONABLE" folder for careful review when I
have time -- (so a message with an attachment is NOT the way to
get a quick response from me). I know that others do the same
thing. A growing number of these "attached" messages lately have
been IBC messages. The IBC Welcome Message which people should
read (but don't) asks that you set your programs to send TEXT
ONLY. If everyone did that, I think Brent's and my (and others')
problems would be fewer.]

In Outlook Express, that is TOOLS-OPTIONS-SEND then look toward
the bottom of the page to set both mail and news to send TEXT
ONLY! Outlook is similar (I think). Dunno about others, BUT IT
CAN BE DONE -- and should.

Jim Lewis - - Tallahassee, FL -- Bonsai List
manager emeritus

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