[Mailman-Users] Email command upgrade

Stephen J. Turnbull stephen at xemacs.org
Tue Oct 5 09:58:52 CEST 2004


>>>>> "Brad" == Brad Knowles <brad at stop.mail-abuse.org> writes:

    Brad> 	Well, by default, it doesn't ignore or hide the List-*
    Brad> headers, and turns them into proper clickable links.  [...]

    Brad> 	This is all that needs to be done to properly
    Brad> implement the RFC.

If you think that's "proper" ....  Hm ... let's put it this way:

For most users most of the time those headers are an annoyance.
They're already subscribed, 'F' directs a followup to the list, they
don't want to unsubscribe, etc.  The rest of the time, it's trivial to
format them as a pulldown or popup menu.  Wouldn't _you_ prefer them
that way?  The only question is how to properly draw attention to the
facility so it doesn't get lost in the Macromedia[tm] Flash[R].

    Brad> Mailman does the right thing here,

Agreed.

    Brad> as does Qualcomm/Eudora.

Arguable, as it's basically what Gnus does ;-), but apparently the
users disagree.  The Eudora interface reeks of Emacs thinking, which
*I* love, but I wouldn't inflict on my mother or even my siblings (two
out of three of whom develop software for a living).

Look, since Eudora is doing basically the right thing here, I should
stop trashtalking them.  (*sigh*, again.  It's a sad world we live in
when drawing parallels to Emacs is "trashtalk".)  But we can and
should (IMHO) encourage them to offer the users something which is a
_clear_ (even to one looking through stained-glass Windows)
improvement over Murky-sloppy software.

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

True, but remember: deservedly or not, they outvote us 100 to 1.

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.



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