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Is it possible for me to use a mailing list if I want to send HTML mail because it's more expressive and allows the client to rewrap emails to the width of the

Is it possible for me to use a mailing list if I want to send HTML mail because it's more expressive and allows the client to rewrap emails to the width of the reader's screen? What if I want my 1:1 emails and forum/mailing-list broadcasts to be sent to separate user interfaces, rather than using a client-side filter to separate them after the fact? (I'm fine with top-quoting specific lines out of long messages, but would rather have threading capabilities when I'm replying to an entire message, so readers won't have to scroll past a second copy of the message.)

globular-toast 5y ago
> I'm fine with top-quoting specific lines out of long messages, but would rather have threading capabilities when I'm replying to an entire message, so readers won't have to scroll past a second copy of the message. That's great because mail readers have supported threading for decades. It's pretty essential for using a mailing list. Most mail readers support it, but not Microsoft ones. Somehow they managed to ruin this simple feature. This caused Google to reinvent it in the early 2000s and announce it like it was an innovation of their own.
- nyanpasu64 5y ago
  The reason I brought it up is because when I read mailing list archives, I see both threading, and certain messages which top-quote previous messages multiple layers deep. Deeply nested top-quoting is inconvenient for me to mentally parse.
ornornor 5y ago
> if I want to send HTML mail because it's more expressive and allows the client to rewrap emails to the width of the reader's screen? I’m almost certain thunderbird soft wraps plaintext emails when composing rather than inserting actual line breaks for that reason. Besides, shorter lines are easier to read and parse; I’d take an 80 columns width text anytime over a 120+ cols, like more and more people tend to use.
Telemakhos 5y ago
> I want to send HTML mail because it's more expressive For thousands of years prior to the invention of HTML email, back unto the ages of cuneiform on clay, people managed to express themselves. Entire competing schools of rhetoric developed to teach people how best to express themselves, long before any form of electronic mail existed. Some of those schools focused on eloquence and interest, others on brevity and clarity, and those were both possible with plain text written by reed pens and ink on papyrus. I wonder whether relying on HTML for one's expression is really better than cultivating a writing style that suffices to convey one's thoughts independently of the medium used.
- nyanpasu64 5y ago
  Plaintext email is a regression from technical typesetting with embedded equations and diagrams.

globular-toast 5y ago

> I'm fine with top-quoting specific lines out of long messages, but would rather have threading capabilities when I'm replying to an entire message, so readers won't have to scroll past a second copy of the message. That's great because mail readers have supported threading for decades. It's pretty essential for using a mailing list. Most mail readers support it, but not Microsoft ones. Somehow they managed to ruin this simple feature. This caused Google to reinvent it in the early 2000s and announce it like it was an innovation of their own.

nyanpasu64 5y ago
The reason I brought it up is because when I read mailing list archives, I see both threading, and certain messages which top-quote previous messages multiple layers deep. Deeply nested top-quoting is inconvenient for me to mentally parse.

ornornor 5y ago

> if I want to send HTML mail because it's more expressive and allows the client to rewrap emails to the width of the reader's screen? I’m almost certain thunderbird soft wraps plaintext emails when composing rather than inserting actual line breaks for that reason. Besides, shorter lines are easier to read and parse; I’d take an 80 columns width text anytime over a 120+ cols, like more and more people tend to use.

Telemakhos 5y ago

> I want to send HTML mail because it's more expressive For thousands of years prior to the invention of HTML email, back unto the ages of cuneiform on clay, people managed to express themselves. Entire competing schools of rhetoric developed to teach people how best to express themselves, long before any form of electronic mail existed. Some of those schools focused on eloquence and interest, others on brevity and clarity, and those were both possible with plain text written by reed pens and ink on papyrus. I wonder whether relying on HTML for one's expression is really better than cultivating a writing style that suffices to convey one's thoughts independently of the medium used.

nyanpasu64 5y ago
Plaintext email is a regression from technical typesetting with embedded equations and diagrams.