Bug 251931

Summary:	html emails silently ignored on gentoo mailing lists without needed prior warnings to subscription
Product:	Community Relations	Reporter:	Mark David Dumlao <madumlao>
Component:	User Relations	Assignee:	Gentoo Community Relations Team <comrel>
Status:	RESOLVED DUPLICATE
Severity:	normal
Priority:	High
Version:	unspecified
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Package list:		Runtime testing required:	---

Description Mark David Dumlao 2008-12-21 20:07:26 UTC

e-mails on various gentoo mailing lists are silently ignored if they are available in html format. No or insufficient prior warnings against html e-mails are part of the mailing list subscription process, the mailing list pages, or documentation pointing to the mailing lists.

Because they are ignored silently, senders are not even aware that there is a communication issue at all, and by default will assume that people are just uninterested in their particular thread or topic.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
Mailing list background information
1. Look for a mailing list to subscribe to at the gentoo website (http://www.gentoo.org/main/en/lists.xml)
2. Observe that there are no warnings against html emails.
===
Mailing list subscription information
1. Send a subscription email to listname+subscribe@lists.gentoo.org
2. Receive your confirmation mail.
3. Send a subscription confirmation / reply to the mail.
4. Observe that there are no warnings against html emails.
===
Every day usage
1. Formulate an interesting, solvable question giving plenty of information.
2. Post the question to a subscribed gentoo mailing list
3. Observe a marked difference in reply volume / rate to other posts compared to your post, typicaly at zero.
Actual Results:
Users do not read or reply to mails sent in html format. Postings get silently ignored. There are no warnings against sending html formats.

Expected Results:
Warnings at the mailing list listing, subscription process, and possibly when sending regarding sending html emails. Possibly a published netiquette guide for the gentoo mailing list.

I have been informed that there are periodic anti-html postings in the mailing list itself. This is a wrong solution, because the usage patterns of a developer mailing list have to do with software-based skimming and filtering for topics.

It is especially relevant for users to be aware of a community-wide html embargo, since many mail readers transparently read and write plain and html emails, and many even default to them.

Comment 1 Ferris McCormick (RETIRED) gentoo-dev

2008-12-21 22:56:46 UTC


*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 252102 ***