Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/08/02
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]> Perhaps Brian can correct me if I am mistaken but Microsoft's Outlook > Express for the Mac is a wonderful program. Easy to use and all the relevant > information displayed. If I am wrong Brian and my using OE is causing you > sleepless nights, let me know and I will switch. There are two (implicit) questions here. I will answer them separately. First: the program that you use to read your email does not cause me any grief. What causes me grief is people who, because of their use of some email program or other, engage in behaviors that consume my time. None of the regular posters to the LUG falls into that category. There are about 1500 people in the LUG right now, and if only one percent of them need my attention on an email issue each week, that's still 15 people a week. I have never myself used Outlook Express, so I don't know if it's a good program or not. I don't even know if it can be configured to display the email address of the person who sent the message. I do know that all of the people who ask for my help in solving an email-related problem use Outlook Express, but that no more than about half of the LUG members use that program. So, statistically, Outlook Express users need more help with their email than do users of other programs. I don't really care about why that is so. Somebody said that my comment about Microsoft mail programs was wrong because it handles replies correctly for them. I made no statement about its that its DISPLAY behavior violates the mail standards. I have no data about how it handles replies. Every message sent to the LUG contains a "Reply-To:" clause in it whose purpose is to direct email clients to route their replies to the list. The specific thing that causes problems is people wanting to send a private response to a message, and not being able to do so. One way of being able to send a private response is to know the email address of the person who sent a message, which will be displayed by standards-compliant email programs. Email software, like all other tools, is a personal choice. For nearly 20 years I read my email with MH. Then I switched to Eudora. Now I use Mulberry. It does what I need it to do and stays out of my way the rest of the time. If Microsoft has a program that is bug-free and that many people like a lot, which is the image I'm getting of Outlook Express, then it is even more tragic that they have poisoned it by wilfully including a violation of the email addressing standards. Summary: use whatever email program you want. Your merely reading your email cannot not bother me in any way. The behaviors that bother me (which I believe to be exacerbated by Outlook Express) are sending to the entire list messages that should be sent just to one person, and sending me a lot of questions about email because you are baffled by the way your email program handles LUG mail. As an aside: almost everybody whose emailer suddenly switches from plain text to MIME without them knowing it is an Outlook Express user. That program seems to have a behavior that silently turns off plain-text mail. I don't want to waste a lot more list capacity on this topic. Sensible replies appreciated.