[OFB Cafe] Cafe List

[Timothy Butler]

> What Mailman does is de-HTML the message by parsing it, removing the  
> HTML tags and saving the text.  It disseminates the message to the  
> list subscribers, then converts it back to HTML for the archives.

Pipermail, the mail archiver bundled with Mailman, has always stunk. I  
experimented with replacing it before, but usually don't feel like all  
the effort getting something else to work right.

> I always wanted something like it in Mac OS X Mail, but alas, Apple  
> never did anything that cool with Mail (while I was using it, anyway).

	That's the advantage of an integrated service, I suppose. Mac OS X  
Mail could only do that, easily, if it did it only for MobileMe (just  
as the Live implementation uses Live services to do it). Of course,  
since Mac OS photo management is centered in iPhoto, not Mail, one  
might not have much reason to do that.

> I got that option turned off since nobody I exchange email with on a  
> regular basis uses plain text anymore.  This list, and the various  
> linux support groups on the internet, are probably the last plain- 
> text holdouts on the planet.

	Nah. AOL too. Most AOL users I know, and -- come to think of it --  
many Yahoo Mail users and Gmail users still use text-based mail.

	My preference is that people would use text based mail with Textile  
processing that mail before displaying it. That way cues for _italics_  
and *bold* would be processed, etc.

> Fact of the matter is, the email mailing list is a dying breed  
> because it's so limited in what it can do.  The vast majority of  
> internet groups have gone to web-based forums run on software like  
> phpBB and its ilk.  Even bigger than online forums are social sites  
> like Windows Live Spaces or Facebook.

	Yes. Facebook is *the* center of community these days. Hopefully it  
will never become the mess that is MySpace.

	I'm still waiting for social data portability. That is increasingly  
becoming important. I hope Facebook starts working with Google, Plaxo,  
MySpace, Yahoo, etc., on that. But, for the moment Facebook is the  
equivalent of AOL before it become internet connected.

	I'm not sure we are headed to a better place; mailing lists still  
remain far more portable and decentralized, but you are right that  
they are dying. Nevertheless, I suspect most of us will continue to  
use them until we are as odd for doing that as people using Gopher are  
today.

	-Tim

---
Timothy R. Butler | "The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window- 
panes,
Editor, OfB.biz   | The yellow smoke that rubs its muzzle on the  
window-panes
tbutler at ofb.biz   | Licked  its  tongue  into the  corners  of  the   
evening,
timothybutler.us  | Lingered upon the pools that stand in drains."
                                                                 --  
T.S. Eliot