FreeLists / arachne / [arachne] Re: My missbehaving Sam Heywood

["Samuel W. Heywood" <sheywood@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 10:20:07 +0000, Andrej Cuckov wrote:

> Hello

> I have been closely watching the "scene" lately, and begin to be fed-up with
> situation, therefore this letter.

> It all started Wed, 05 Oct 2005 13:35:52 -0500 when our Sam Heywood wrote:
> --snip--
> People who send HTML attachments being duplicates of the text body
> are like people who have halitosis (bad breath).  Even their best
> friends won't tell them that they have this problem and that they
> need to do something about it.  Most people who send dupe HTML's
> are not even aware that they are doing it.

> As for those who deliberately send M$-Word attachments instead of
> just simple straight-up ascii text messages when no special formatting
> is needed or desired by any of their email recipients, I have no idea
> why they do that.

> Don't they know ...........
> --end snip--

> and it all finished Wed, 12 Oct 2005 11:29:47 -0500 when our Sam Heywood
> wrote this too:
> --snip--
> Joe, (_note from andrej_: Joe da Silva)

> I'll bet that all the bosses in the company you work for are getting
> a lot of complaints from all the employees about how fed up they are
> about how screwed up and misconfigured their mail server is.

> The company could placate the employees very easily and fix the problem
> without incurring much of any expense to the company.  Also the company
> would benefit from increased employee morale if the company would just
> simply fix the problem.

> In addition to getting complaints from employees, the company is most
> likely also getting a lot of complaints about their emails from customers
> and businesses that the company corresponds with by email.

> Almost all the people who receive emails sent by your company's computers
> probably have a very bad impression of the company and its employees
> because none of the emails conform to the expected standards.  The
> recipients of the emails do not know that the screwed up emails are not
> the fault of the employees who send them unless the employees explain
> to everyone that their company's mail server is all screwed up and
> misconfigured and that the company doesn't even want to fix it.

> Even an email otherwise conforming to standards but being somewhat
> poorly written and having a few spelling and grammatical errors would be
> far more acceptable to most people than an email improperly sent as a
> base64 attachment accompanied by a "winmail.dat" attachment.

> The attachments are a PITA.

> Why won't they simply fix the problem?

> BTW, you have my permission and encouragement to forward this complaint
> thru the proper channels to your company's CEO.  He should not be left
> in the dark without knowing about one of the main causes of the very
> serious problems that the company is suffering from.  Fortunately for
> him and his company, this problem has a very easy and almost cost-free
> solution.  Any consultants advising him otherwise are lying to him and
> trying to rip-off the company and its stockholders.  A teen age computer
> techie could fix the problem for him in about half an hour and the techie
> would charge only about ten to fifteen bucks for saving the company.
> --end snip--

> My criticism will not go to the ISPs or to anyone else, but to our Sam
> Heywood.

> =====================
> I mean, Dear Sam Heywood,

> who do you think you are to have the rights to tell others (inclusive me)
> that "People who send HTML attachments being duplicates of the text body are
> like people who have halitosis (bad breath)" ?

> Who do you think you are to have the rights to *judge others* by "As for
> those who deliberately send M$-Word attachments instead of
> just simple straight-up ascii text messages when no special formattingis
> needed or desired by any of their email recipients, I have no idea
> why they do that."

> Also, who do you think you are to have the rights to offend (into my
> opinion) Joe da Silva with assumptions like "I'll bet that all the bosses in
> the company you work for are getting a lot of complaints from all the
> employees about how fed up they are...".
> I mean what gives you the rights to even think that Joe is employed, that he
> has a boss *in the company he works for* ,

Joe himself said that it is a probem with the configuration of his company's
server.  If he owned the company, or if he were the CEO, he would be able to
fix the problem very easily.

> Also, who do you think you are to have the rights to state: "Almost all the
> people who receive emails sent by your company's computers
> probably have a very bad impression of the company and its employees because
> none of the emails conform to ..."

> Are you aware *to whom* you are sending these emails, are you aware that you
> are being so rude to the person who actually makes the arachne for me, you
> and the others?

I am perfectly aware that Joe is a very good contributor to Arachne's
development.  I have known that for a couple of years.

> Yes, there is  problem with the ISPs, yes there are bugs and unfinished
> things,

> and sadly enough, yes there is a Sam Heywood who just spills *bad breath*
> onto this list.

> =======================

In every society it is expected that people who violate the established
standards and rules will be criticised for that.

It is not rude to criticise a person for doing something that is most
clearly wrong.  The criticism is helpful to the offender so that he
might learn how to correct his mistakes.  I posted the URL that explains
how to configure one's email client so that it will desist from sending
dupe htmls.

http://www.delorie.com/listserv/mime/
Why HTML Mail is Evil

The information at that web site is not just a statement of the author's
opinion that HTML is evil.  It proves that html email is evil by the use
of graphics that display the crap sent unkowingly by the senders of the
dupe html attachments.  It is a perfectly valid proof because the
demonstrated problem may be reproduced and seen on any computer.

My analogy that most people who send dupe html attachments are like
people who have halitosis is valid.  Most people who have halitosis
don't know that they have this problem because most of the people
they associate with do not tell them about it.  Similarly, most people
who send dupe html's don't know that they have that problem because
most of the people they correspond with don't tell them about it.
Friends do not let friends send dupe html attachments.  Dupe html
attachments look ugly and they are a waste of disk space and bandwidth.
A waste is terrible thing to mind.

As far as I know Joe does not commit the offense of sending dupe html's
or M$-Word attachments when attachments of that type are not desired or
needed.  He sends base64 text attachments and "windmail.dat" attachments
and superfluous and unwanted pseudo-legal notices as base64 attachments.
I will sometimes, but very rarely, send a base64 text attachment, but
only for a good reason.  There are a few justifiable exceptions to the
general taboo against sending base64 text attachments.

I have been polite and civil in my criticism of Joe.  I did not call him
any nasty names.  I didn't even suggest to him that he should take a
long walk on short pier.

If Joe wants to keep conducting tests for the purpose of trying to find
some kind of work-around for dealing with the problems, then he should
send the test messages to one of his own email addresses.  He should not
be sending these things to a mailing list.

Sam Heywood

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