[Mailman-Users] listserv question

[C Nulk]

Hello all,

How odd?  I can potentially answer another question.

By "novell email", I am going to guess you are referring to either the
Novell GroupWise client or Novell's GroupWise WebAccess client (email
via the web).

Let's start with the GroupWise client.  Depending on your settings, you
will be sending your message as plain text or as an html message (this
is actually like Mark said - a multipart/alternative message with
text/plain and text/html - and I am simplifying).  It is best to send
your message to Mailman as a plain text message.  To do so with the
client when composing a message, click on "View -> Plain Text" (my
version of the GroupWise client is v7.0.3).  Compose the message and
send it.

As for the GroupWise WebAccess client, I don't know of any way to switch
to plain text - either in the options or while composing a message.  I
would recommend the GroupWise Client.  However, if you must use
WebAccess, I would recommend you save your Word document as a "Plain
text (*.txt)" document first, then open it with Notepad to cut and paste
to the WebAccess compose dialog.  Hopefully, that will strip out any
Word anomalies which may affect your message.

Or, you can do like I do, use a mail client that allows you to chose if
you want to send your message as html, plain text, or both.  I use
Thunderbird, others may use something else.

Chris

Mark Sapiro wrote:
> Carolyn Vander Schee wrote:
>
>   
>> I am wondering if you could help me with a problem I am having regarding a list serv that has recently been set up. 
>>     
>
>
> If you are really asking about a Listserv(r) list, you've come to the
> wrong place.
>
> <rant>
> I know that use of Listserv(r) as a generic term to refer to an email
> list or email list management software is ubiquitious, and I'm just
> pissing in the wind to fight it, but Listserv(r) is a registered
> trademark[1] owned by the developer of a particular email list
> management product, and it shouldn't be used generically.
>
> My personal interest in this is not to protect the Listserv(r)
> trademark, but rather to avoid confusing Listserv(r) email list
> management software with any other email list management software
> including GNU Mailman of which I am a developer.
>
> [1] <http://www.lsoft.com/corporate/trademark.asp>
> </rant>
>
>
>   
>> It seems as though some members of the group are receiving a very messy post (ie., characters do not all turn out and spaces are missing). This, of course, is making it difficult for our members to read. Some members however are receiving the message as it was sent (no problems). 
>>
>> When I compose the messages, I am careful to take all the formatting out (using word) and then paste the unformatted announcement in my email (novell email). 
>>
>> Perhaps you could offer a few suggestions. Would it be better, for example, for me to use g-mail to send out the messages?
>>     
>
>
> It is very difficult to know what might be happening without seeing a
> sample raw message including all headers and MIME parts.
>
> What I am guessing is happening is your novell email is composing a
> multipart/alternative message with text/plain and text/html
> alternative parts. Some clients will actually create an HTML message
> as you type, paste, etc. and then convert that HTML to plain text for
> the text/plain part and some are notoriously bad at converting the
> HTML to plain text.
>
> This could be happening in your case such that the text/html part is a
> fairly faithful representation of what you entered and the text/plain
> alternative is somewhat garbled. Then those users whose mail readers
> display the html part see what you entered and others whose mail
> readers display the plain text part see the garbled message.
>
> As I said though, this is only a guess, but I can say that if this is
> in fact a Mailman list, all regular (non-digest) members are receiving
> the same message.
>
>