My guess is that my posting have this problem for you. That would be the case if the mailing list software left the MIME structure of my messages unaltered. You can blame this on a combination of two things:
Also on an unrelated topic can anyone explain why many posting to openhealth arrive with the text only visible as an attachment? Is there a setting in outlook express that would automatically open the attachment so I could read it without excess clicks?
Advanced MIME e-mail formats. Stupid e-mail front ends (and interface design!).
Advanced MIME e-mail:
I use PGP, mainly for signature verfication, but also for encryption to like minded people. The latest version of PGP uses the PGP MIME standard. (S/MIME, an alternative also works the same way) In that standard, the plaintext is what is signed and then put into a MIME structure and the signature is attached as another MIME structure.
Now, some mail readers think that anything in a MIME structure must be an attachment, an assumption that was good a few years ago. Others look at the MIME structures and if they can display them as plaintext, do so, otherwise they present them as attachments.
The most popular use of this kind of totally MIME structure mail is HTML mail or Rich Text Mail. Often, HTML enabled mail readers will also include both the MIME versions of the mail and the non-MIME versions of the mail in a single message, thus sending the same thing twice! OF course, they only see one thing, but HTML mail crippled mail readers see two things.
Mail interface design:
A good mail interface design would allow one to associate each destination mail address with the capabilities that it has, so that people who do not have PGP/MIME or S/MIME or HTML mail will not get mail in those formats. But most mail readers usually have this as a simple on or off switch.
That's what mine does for PGP/MIME. So, when sending mail to this list I should really think about it and not click the Send Icon, I should drop down the Enigmail menu and select plaintext send. But you can guess that in a hurry or laziness, I just hit the send Icon!
So now I am going to move my hand to the mouse, navigate to the Enigmail menu and select plain text send......
Of course, just like Raymonds example with CUPS, before I can make an intelligent selection I have to know what the options mean!
-- Wayne Wilson An attachment containing my pgp-signature is included. My public key fingerprint is: 9325 05AD 866B BCCB 45BF E86A 63E1 C6ED 4130 5461 My public key can be downloaded from wwwkeys.us.pgp.net
