Re: dns_cancel_pending_resolve() message

[Scott Bennett <bennett@xxxxxxxxxx>]

     On Thu, 27 Sep 2007 01:05:06 +0200 Arjan <tor-talk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
>Scott Bennett wrote:
>>      On Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:43:30 +0200 Fabian Keil
>> <freebsd-listen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>[...]
>>> http://bugs.noreply.org/flyspray/index.php?do=3Ddetails&id=3D463
>>>
>>      That yielded a page containing only the following message:
>>
>> - Do request is invalid.
>>
>>      However, I took a guess that the two "3D" character sequences were
>> word-processor control sequences and removed them, which appears to get
>> the page you intended that I see.  (This is a typical example of why text
>> editors, rather than word processors, should be used for email.)
>
>Fabians link works on my e-mail client. His message appears to be
>properly MIME-formatted, so it should work fine on any decent e-mail
>client.

     I do not use an email "client".  I use a standard SMTP mail application
that has been around almost forever:  UCBmail.  MIME is fine for those who
like it for private email, but it is totally inappropriate for mailing lists
unless its use is specified in a mailing list's "charter" or policy statement,
in which case subscribers know at the outset that they will need a MIME-capable
mail interface to participate fully.  Plain, ASCII text is the only format
normally appropriate for mailing lists and always has been, with the exception
of mailing lists on long-departed EBCDIC-based networks (e.g., BITNET).  It is
also far safer for many subscribers, especially those victimized by
Microsloth's excuses for operating systems.  (Fortunately, I do not have that
particular problem.:-)
>
>Complaining about things like top-posting, line wrapping, html messages
>and using word processors instead of text editors, may not encourage
>people to respond to your questions.

     Well, if you're saying that the community of people subscribed to this
list is, on the whole, so discourteous as to ignore and generally consider
unimportant basic list etiquette for clear communication, then perhaps it's
time for those of us who disagree to unsubscribe and let the majority continue
to act as rudely as it likes with as many communication troubles as it can
create for itself.  It is my hope, and has been my impression thus far,
however, that most OR-TALK participants are not discourteous in the manner
that you seem to suggest, although there are almost certainly some who have
erred without realizing it for one reason or another.  It is because I tend
to assume initially that people who break basic list etiquette do so
unintentially that I point it out in hopes that they will not repeat whatever
they did.  When pointing out a problem results in no change in their behavior,
though, it does get discouraging.
>
>Your may want to try changing e-mail clients, because you currently
>don't put In-Reply-To or References headers in your messages. That
>appears to be messing up the thread view in my e-mail client.
>
     As noted above, I don't use an email client.  If I have to use MIME
to deal with special file formats, I use pine(1), which I really dislike,
but will use out of necessity.  I *never* post MIME to a mailing list.  Also,
a client-server arrangement is unnecessary for me to deal with a local mail
box and would simply add another potential point of failure.
     AFAIK, UCBmail inserts *no* comment headers at all, only the standard
SMTP headers.  I doubt that is likely to change at this point.  Nor do I feel
obligated in any way to use a USENET news reader-style mail interface to deal
with a mailing list.  If OR-TALK is someday bridged to a USENET news group,
then the threaded news readers like tin(1) and trn(1) will handle those
matters, but I see no reason to deal with special threading in a mailing
list, particularly one so low-volume as OR-TALK.  In fact, most of the
mailing lists I'm on arrive in digest form, which would probably defeat any
special threading software anyway.  (OR-TALK doesn't seem to be available
in a digest.)  I have no difficulty following topics, provided people format
their messages correctly (e.g., citing time, author, and appropriate text of
message to which one is responding, not top-posting, etc.)  This has remained
true throughout the more than two decades I've been reading articles from
mailing lists.

				  Best regards,


                                  Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG
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* Internet:       bennett at cs.niu.edu                              *
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