[Mailman-Users] emails with extension .se rejected

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

M Winther writes:

 > If I use any of my my Swedish email addresses (.se) my messages
 > keep bouncing on account of "iajsdiscussionlist.org: DNS server
 > failure." Yahoo groups intermittently has the same
 > problem. However, in this case the messages just disappear. So I
 > must use my google email address. I have always had this problem
 > with my ".se" emails. Sometimes when posting to a journal, for
 > instance, my message is regarded as spam. I suppose it has to do
 > with the fact that ".se" is not a known American state.

This doesn't sound like it's related to Mailman at all, especially
since other mail-related applications have the same problem on
occasion.  From what you write here, I can only suggest you talk to
the admins of your mail host.

 > I have also observed that messages from other contributors never
 > arrive in my inbox, although they appear in the archive. But this
 > occurs more rarely.

This doesn't either.

 > The list software also tends to corrupt messages in the archive by
 > inserting digits instead of characters (for citation characters,
 > etc.), when the user is *not* using plain text with "dumb" citation
 > signs, etc.

If it's possible to take a look at the archives, please let us know
where to find them.  I suspect that what you are describing is called
"HTML entities", which are a way of describing any character in the
world in a way such that any web browser can display it, no matter
what language the computer speaks to its user.  But I can't say
without actually looking at the file.

 > I suppose this has to do with the moderator copying a big message
 > for the sake of reviewing, and then posting it without regard to
 > the format.

That's hard to say.  You'd have to ask the moderator about that. 

 > In messages of mine, citation characters (right arrow) are sometimes 
 > randomly inserted.

Would that happen to correspond to the case where the word "From"
appears at the left margin?  If so, that is not Mailman's doing.  It
is done by the mail system somewhere along the line.  Again, a URL to
a "corrupt" message would make further discussion a lot simpler.

 > I use plain text that is line wrapped. Moreover, a drawback is that
 > messages cannot be removed afterwards. I don't know how professors,
 > concerned about their professional reputation, can tolerate
 > this. After all, when partaking in discussion lists, we sometimes
 > say things which we later regret, on account of changed views, for
 > instance.

The fact is that you cannot reliably retract anything once you've sent
an email.  You can't call it back, and arbitrarily many copies can be
made for free.  Furthermore, the recipient's copy or the archive copy
is just as official as the sender's file copy.  If you want control
over the medium, use a blog.  (Even then people can keep copies, but
at least your copy is the official one.)