[Mailman-Users] Banner and Complex code in header and footer

[Brad Knowles]

At 4:23 AM -0700 2004-08-16, zzizzle at zzizzle.com wrote:

>  For instance:
>  1) Can you add an html header to the emails?  I still don't get it.
>  I read the links you provided, and their sub-links.

	You can add a header or footer, but they cannot include HTML. 
Not all messages posted to the list would necessarily be in HTML, so 
blindly adding HTML would not make sense.  Moreover, due to the way 
HTML is handled differently by different programs, it would be 
impossible to add a single piece of HTML that would be seen the same 
way by everyone.


	When you start adding fancy features like HTML and MIME, it 
becomes impossible to add *anything* of any sort to the message which 
doesn't risk looking different to some users, or even being 
completely unreadable to them.

	This is why Mailman supports converting HTML and MIME to plain 
text, but not the other way around.

>  2) Is there a way so people subscribing don't go back into that archaic
>  interface - when it asks them to accept or decline the list it's flat
>  out confusing - text overwhelm - my user base is consumers and not
>  programmers.

	Nope.  Not unless you want to build something better.

>   Why should a) they have too choose or deny when they are clicking on
>  a link to confirm?

	Because sometimes users click on things and didn't mean to?

	Haven't you ever accidentally selected the "shutdown" item on 
your menu, and then been very glad when the machine asked you if this 
is what you really wanted to do?

>                      It should just confirm them without another button
>  text and w/o text overwhelm. and b) it takes them back to a list of all
>  my lists, which I hate, or at least would like to have the option of
>  avoiding, if I am not intending to mix all my subscribers.  I don't
>  want them to have the option of joining other groups unless I intend
>  to give it to them.

	Mailman is not designed to hide everything else on the machine 
from your users, unless you want to make all those other lists 
completely hidden from everyone.  There is a limit to how much 
stupidity that Mailman can protect the users from doing to themselves.

	Now, if you wanted to contribute code back to the project to do 
this sort of thing, I'm sure that Barry would be glad to accept 
whatever patches you might have, and there might be some hope that 
they'd be included in some future version.

>  3) I don't understand if you can attach PDFs where it says, i.e. to
>  new subscribers, etc.  When I attach one, it just inserts garble into
>  the text box once the PDF file is uploaded.  I can't tell if this is
>  an error, or what, and if I can include additional text.

	I don't understand what you're asking.  Can you be more clear?

-- 
Brad Knowles, <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org>

"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little
temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

     -- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), reply of the Pennsylvania
     Assembly to the Governor, November 11, 1755

   SAGE member since 1995.  See <http://www.sage.org/> for more info.