[TowerTalk] Use of HTML in Reflector Messages

[Pete Smith]

At the risk of being considered a "bit cop," herewith a plea...

With the increasing popularity of Microsoft Outlook 98 and Outlook Express
has come a corresponding increase in the number of messages being posted to
the reflector in HTML (hyper-text mark-up language, the stuff used on Web
pages) instead of plain text.  The problem is that a typical HTML message
is about twice as long (in number of characters) as the same content in
straight text.  Multiply that by over 1000 addressees and you have a big
increase in the bandwidth required to send such messages.  That in turn
puts an unnecessary burden on the machine hosting the reflector.  Since
this hosting is at no cost to us, it's pretty unfair for us to make it just
that much harder.

It's very simple, apparently (I don't have either program myself), to go
into Options or Preferences and find where Outlook selects HTML vs plain
ASCII text, and make sure you select the latter.  

Outlook 98 also has the unfortunate habit of "answering in kind."  When you
respond to a message written in HTML, Outlook assumes you want to send HTML
back.  I've also been told there is a place in Options or Preferences to
turn this off.

As these programs get more popular, this problem will only grow.  We can
nip it in the bud for the reflector, if Outlook users act now.  Thanks for
reading this...
   
   

73, Pete Smith N4ZR
n4zr@contesting.com 

Loud is good.


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