[Mailman-Users] cPanel Purgatory??!!??

[Mark Sapiro]

JB at comcast wrote:
>
>I am going INSANE!!!    Below are 3 different examples of footers sent out with posts from just 3 out of the dozen+ Lists I have behind cPanel.  I have spent HOURS
>trying to find differences between the 3 for the settings for "footers" and their HTML
>"sending" and CANNOT!!


cPanel has it's own mods having to do with footers and I have no idea
exactly what they are or what they do, except I know that they can
cause duplication of attached images in posts. See
<http://forums.cpanel.net/showthread.php?t=61603> (registration
required). Also see
<http://mail.python.org/pipermail/mailman-users/2007-February/055639.html>.


>Not sure if the actual "pictures" of either actual html or just "print" with come thru, so...


What would actually be helpful would be just the contents of msg_footer.


What follows talks about two things - our mailman package and MUAs. The
Mailman stuff may or may not apply to cPanel.

In general you can't put html tags in msg_footer and have them work as
html in the message, because the footer is always inserted/attached in
a text/plain part. Thus if I put

<a
href="http://www.sprite-midgetclub.org">http://www.sprite-midgetclub.org</a>

in msg_footer, what you will see in the email is exactly what you see
in this post. It may look like raw html without any 'clickable' link.
It may have somm clickable part(s) which may or may not be exactly
http://www.sprite-midgetclub.org. What it looks like is a function of
your MUA.

If I just put the URL or the URL in <> brackets as I have done with
several URLs already in this post, it may or may not show as
'clickable' when you view the mail. This depends entirely on your MUA
and whether or not it tries to make text that looks like a URI/URL
into a clickable link.


>******************************************************************************
>in this one just the 4th line comes thru as clickable and I added it just as you can read.  no "code".
>_______________________________________________
>50thcommittee mailing list
>50thcommittee at sprite-midgetclub.info
>http://sprite-midgetclub.info/mailman/listinfo/50thcommittee_sprite-midgetclub.info
>http://www.sprite-midgetclub.org
>**********************************************************************


The MUA I'm using to read/reply to this message shows both the 3rd and
4th lines as clickable.


>**********************************************************************
>in this one both lines 2 + 3 come thru as "clickable".  As do most of the others.
>_______________________________________________
>50thcommittee mailing list
>50thcommittee at spritespree.org
>http://spritespree.org/mailman/listinfo/50thcommittee_spritespree
>*******************************************************************************


Above, I see only the 3rd line as clickable.


>*******************************************************************************
>in this one NONE come thru as "clickable"?!?  Nor did I add the "leave" line??
>_______________________________________________
>Notify mailing list
>Notify at justbrits.com
>Notify-leave at justbrits.com
>http://justbrits.com/mailman/listinfo/notify_justbrits.com
>###as the end of Line 4 was the end of my "paste" it changed to "clickable".###


This is your MUA doing this.


>The only reason I am posting to group is that maybe it (and the solution) would help
>others "trapped" like I am -:)-:)
>
>Thanks!!
>
>Ed
>www.justbrits.com


The MUA I'm using shows the domain above as clickable because it begins
with "www."

The MUA I'm using shows no email addresses as clickable. Others do.

Bottom line:

You can't control what other people's MUA's are going to do. You can't
put actual html tags in msg_footer. Going through contortions to make
something look a certain way when YOU view it with YOUR MUA is wasted
effort because it won't look the same with other MUA's. Just put plain
email addresses and URIs/URLs in msg_footer; it's the only way to
guarantee that everyone sees something reasonable.

-- 
Mark Sapiro <msapiro at value.net>       The highway is for gamblers,
San Francisco Bay Area, California    better use your sense - B. Dylan