[COMM-ORG] messy messages on COMM-ORG

[Discussion list for COMM-ORG]

  Hi COMM-ORG,

You may have noticed that an increasing number of messages on COMM-ORG 
are really messy.  This is the result of an increasing number of groups 
using mass e-mailing services that use sloppy database code to create 
links in mass messages.  When they go through COMM-ORG, the html content 
is stripped, leaving the alternative text message that shows the actual 
link.  The problem is that, along with sloppy database standards that 
create humongous links, the mass e-mailers also don't know how to create 
a user-friendly text alternative message, so you get things like equals 
signs at line breaks.  And since the databased web addresses can run 5-6 
lines, that makes the addresses unusable.

Please tell me which of these three choices you prefer:

1.  I can stop forwarding those messages altogether.
2.  I can continue forwarding them as is.
3.  I can allow the fully formatted html messages to go through.

The drawback with the first choice is that it would eliminate nearly all 
of the updates from larger community organizing groups.
The drawback with the second choice is that you would continue to get 
messages where you would have to piece the links together and the sloppy 
databasing makes the message almost unreadable.
The drawbacks with the third choice is that it wastes bandwidth, 
discriminates against people with old computers and dial-up, and risks 
letting a  virus through.  The virus risk is very slim, since it has to 
go through the server virus checker, my own computer virus checker, and 
then the server virus checker again.  But the only way to eliminate the 
risk is to send text-only messages.  And the only way for people with 
dial-up (still the only option except for really expensive satellite 
broadband in some rural areas) to access such messages would be to turn 
off images.

I won't post your opinions to the list unless you ask me to.

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