COMM-ORG needs your advice on html messages

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

Hi COMM-ORG,

Even at a time when there are still many users, particularly in rural 
areas, who are limited to dial-up Internet access, many users with 
vision impairments, many users with 5 year old or more computers, and 
the Internet gatekeepers threatening to charge by the byte, an 
increasing number of e-mail users are sending large, heavily formatted 
messages with pictures and embedded links to the list.  The most common 
source of such messages are national organizations.  When the listserver 
converts those messages to plain text, they are often impossible to read 
and the links do not work.

I have contacted each of the organizations sending out problem messages, 
but have received no response.  So I feel caught between bad choices.  
On the one hand, any organization devoted to community empowerment 
should make sure that all of its communication is accessible to the 
least resourced members of its constituency--that means every message 
should be readable as plain text with typed out links.  Not doing so, in 
my mind, is exclusionary. So my preference is to simply not forward such 
messages through the list.  But doing so would eliminate your access to 
any list messages from those organizations.  The second choice is to 
reconfigure the list server to forward formatted e-mail messages, 
increasing the download times for dial-up users and the frustration 
level of those using screen readers.  It would also increase the risk of 
virus transmission, though not substantially. The third choice is to 
forward all messages to the list as plain text and to put a note at the 
beginning for you all to contact the sender to complain that their 
message doesn't make sense and their links don't work. 

So, I need your advice.  As always, on internal list issues, I won't 
forward your message on this issue to the list unless you request it.

Thanks,

Randy Stoecker
moderator/editor, COMM-ORG
rstoecker at wisc.edu