[Lazarus] Policy regarding HTML messages

[Sven Barth]

On 26.08.2012 10:35, Mark Morgan Lloyd wrote:
> Martin wrote:
>> On 25/08/2012 23:24, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:
>>> To the mailing list admin,
>>>
>>> What is the policy with regards to HTML messages in this mailing
>>> list? I find it very annoying when messages to mailing lists are in
>>> HTML - this seems to be the general consensus in most mailing lists.
>>> I was under the impression that only plain text message was allowed
>>> in this list too.
>>>
>>> Could you please clarify this.
>>>
>>>
>>> People that send multi-part HTML messages...just to list a few.
>>>
>>
>> While I am not the admin, I did a quick search (aprox 17000 msg of the
>> last 18 month): about 2600 or 15% seem to include html.
>> Including mails  of many developers, Including some of mine.
>>
>> IMHO that rule should be seen as an ancient relict (so long as mails
>> are at least mixed, and have a plain-text part too). Even mobile
>> phones have the power and cheap and fast enough connectivity to deal
>> with html mail.
>
> I'd suggest two exceptions.
>
> i)   Messages containing any sort of "phone home", e.g. an embedded
> image held on the originator's server, should be frowned upon.
>
> ii)  Attachments other than alternative representations should be
> frowned upon. Otherwise we'll start receiving full-size projects,
> related binaries, and- eventually- unrelated binaries and potential
> malware.
>
> Attachments etc. are fine in a "pull" medium such as a forum or Mantis.
> They aren't fine in a "push" medium where in most cases they're
> transferred in their entirety to the recipient's systems before he has a
> chance to decide what's relevant.
>

At least on the fpc lists attachements are restricted to AFAIK 20kb so 
that you can still send example projects if you have questions (mails 
containing larger attachments need to be approved by a mailing list 
admin). AFAIK the lazarus lists don't have such a restriction... (I'm 
not sure though)

I personally am perfectly fine posting attachments here (e.g. 
screenshots that show an error, etc), because I prefer the mailing lists 
instead of the forums...

Regards,
Sven