On Sun, 2003-08-31 at 13:23, Jerry Durand wrote: > I use PGP, but it signs IN the message (I'll sign this message to > illustrate).
Plaintext PGP signatures are obsolete and deprecated. They predate the widespread use of MIME. Use RFC 3156 (PGP/MIME) so that at least MIME compliant mailers that don't understand PGP/MIME will show the signature as an attachment rather than inline with the message, which is annoying. Also, the mailing list archive software will then show the signature to everyone on the web site, which is annoying as well. I will not ban attachments on the list, but I think if I made any rules about content, not using plaintext PGP signatures would be one of them. > Not really extreme, there is rarely a time (I can't think of any) that > an attachment should be sent to everybody on a list. I don't know how > many people are here, but I'm on other lists with 1000 or more people. > If you have a file to share, you put it someplace and give a URL (as > in, the Rocket Ranch article is here: > http://interstellar.com/photos/Rocket_Ranch_Article.pdf ). For anyone > without their own server, many places offer free space if you allow > their advertisements on your web page. Of course, if all you're doing > is storing files there, nobody will ever see the advertisements. I agree about not sending LARGE attachments to the list, and the list currently blocks attachments over 40k. Small PDFs or images are definitely one use I can think of for attachments on a mailing list. What is the difference between a PDF and plain text again other than that a PDF is a much richer format for conveying content? The other reason would be cryptographic signatures, allowing users to verify who really sent the message. > Anyway, what is allowed is up to the particular list, I was voicing an > opinion. Lists that I manage do not allow attachments (never have, > going back many years) and I recommend plain text messages so everyone > can read them. If "everybody" means people with non-mime-compliant mailers, screw 'em. On the other hand, I strongly recommend against sending HTML-only emails. Multipart/alternative is fine, which is what almost all mailers that support HTML send. On the other hand, I can even read HTML only emails from the command line using Mutt and Lynx.
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