invisible strands (off topic)

[Alice Faber]

>Larry wrote:
> >   Or should I assume from the last part of what follows that it's
> > not something I can fix on my end?
>
>I fix such things on my end by hitting delete.  I prefer using
>Unix mailx, which doesn't read MIME or HTML.  I see no reason
>for anybody to send e-mail as either of the above.  If I think
>it's something I can't live without, I exit mailx with x, leaving
>all mail as new, and re-enter with a popmail reader.  But 99.99%
>of the time I assume it's not worth the bother and just delete it
>unread.
>
>Why do people choose to send encoded e-mail?  What's wrong with
>nice, clear ASCII?

I think a lot of people who send encoded mail don't choose to do so.
My mother just got a new computer with various Microsoft products
preinstalled, including Outlook Express. The default configuration is
to send mail HTML-ized. I've been unable to get a clear enough
statement of how to turn this off that she can follow and that
actually conforms to the various menu options that she sees. I gather
that this is not atypical. In addition, I think that a lot of folks
don't realize that if they use the same formatting they use in their
word processor (e.g., full underlining instead of _this_ kind of
underlining) that too will produce some kind of encoded mail rather
than clear text.

Alice Faber, Manager                                         (860) 685-2954
Infant Language Development Laboratory                  afaber at wesleyan.edu
400 Judd Hall--Wesleyan University                               or
Middletown, CT 06459                             faber at pop.haskins.yale.edu