Re: Truncation inconsistencies

[Jeff Hecht <jeff@jeffhecht.com>]

At 6:40 AM -0500 11/24/02, HPB1956@aol.com wrote:
> In September I wrote an e-mail to the DML titled "Some (basal)
> intramandibular questions". List member Aspidel just received the "REMAINDER
> OF MESSAGE TRUNCATED" message and informed me about it. Some other members
> received it correctly and answered my questions. So this behavior must depend
> on the interaction between the DML list server and your e-mail software or
> provider.

There seem to be three distinct possibilities:

1. Mail goes through intact to everyone. This is mail sent text-only 
by a program that does it properly.

2. Mail is truncated for everyone. This is mail that's clearly HTML, 
which the mailing list software is set to block. The problem is that 
certain e-mail software -- notably newer versions of AOL -- are set 
to send HTML automatically, and are reportedly very difficult to 
change permanently. I do some truncated messages on the DML.

3. Mail is truncated inconsistently, depended on the recipient's 
e-mail software. This I don't understand, because the same e-mail 
should be going out to everyone. In particular, Eudora and Apple Mail 
downloaded the same message from my server, yet Eudora got the 
message intact, and Apple Mail got the truncated message. The e-mail 
in question came from AOL -- I don't know what version the sender was 
using. It implies that the mailing list software must be sending out 
something that can be interpreted in two ways, one as a truncation 
notice, the other as an intact message, yet clicking on "show all" in 
the Eudora message does not reveal any indication of the truncation.

I rarely use the archives, so I don't know what's happening there.

-- Jeff Hecht

--
Jeff Hecht, science & technology writer
jeff@jeffhecht.com; http://www.jeffhecht.com
Boston Correspondent: New Scientist magazine
Contributing Editor: Laser Focus World,  WDM Solutions
525 Auburn St., Auburndale, MA 02466 USA
v. 617-965-3834; fax 617-332-4760