Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Don't mind me, I'm just annoyed and coping with that by venting (though I did actually mail this).

From dglenn Mon Apr 12 20:30:24 2004
To: [person who sent out a notice to a long list w/o using Bcc:]
Subject: Re: [aforementioned notice]

Please tell me you did not *intentionally* send a 137K message to people (like myself) on slow dialup connections.

Please tell me you did not *intentionally* include binary attachments on a message sent to a mailing list.

Please tell me you did not *intentionally* do both of the above to convey a *two* *line* *message*.

Please tell me you did not *intentionally* send a pile o' HTML and _images_ to a list where you do not know that every reader is using a MIME-and-HTML-capable mail reader. (Hint: at least one reader is using a mail program that does not display HTML, and reading mail over a text (telnet) connection.)

I hope there was no important information in those images, 'cause I'm not going to switch to a different mail program to unpack them then switch to a different type of program entirely (a web browser or a paint program) to look at them.

There is a right way and a wrong way to do this. That was, for multiple reasons, the _wrong_ way.

Looking at your headers, it appears you used a web browser to send the message. I'm hoping that your fingers merely slipped, causing the message you meant to send as brief text with a _pointer_ (URL) to a page with the pretty formatting and pictures on it, to be sent as a painfully large and pointless collection of binary attachements by accident. (And I'll try very hard to remind myself that you didn't ask my opinion of using web browsers to send mail.)

The actual plaintext message was so short that it became easy to overlook next to the badly-formatted HTML that came after it and used more space, so I didn't even realize there was a _legible_ copy of those two lines until the second time I looked at the message. And the HTML copy has enough extraneous stuff in it that I didn't see the meat of the message in it at a glance. Assuming your goal is to get your message _read_ by people, this is *counterproductive*.

And sending me a hundred-and-thirty-[expletive]ing-seven K-byte message to say two [expletive]ing lines is [expletive]ing annoying. It's downright _rude_.

DON'T DO THAT.

If this was a slip of the fingers, say so and I'll go "harpumph" quietly to myself about this elsewhere. If it was due to ignorance, I hope that I've educated you as to why it was bad. And if you need assistance figuring out how to get word out _cleanly_, I'm willing to volunteer some of my time to show you, as a gesture of support for [organization].

                                  -- Glenn

I figured the Bcc: issue can be dealt with another time, perhaps as part of the followup "how to send polite mail" tutorial if he takes me up on that.