Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2016 02:47:59 -0500
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Re: block of random characters
In-Reply-To: <vanagon%2016120700290541@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
If you do a simple reply to a list message, it's sent to the list and then
re-sent from the list to all active list subscribers.
If you do a Reply-All, another copy is sent from you directly to the author
of the message you're replying to.
Yrs,
d
On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 12:29 AM, Bill Glenn <idahobill@gmail.com> wrote:
> Full disclosure, I'm no expert, but here's what I know about this
> problem.
> 1. I first raised this issue of unreadable text back in December of
> 2009. I was told by a moderator that the problem was on my end, but I
> know that not to be the case.
>
> 2. The block of random characters are not random at all. These
> characters are the result of messages being encoded with Base64
> encoding.
>
> 3. You can convert Base64 encoding by copying and pasting the message
> into a Base64 decoder such as this one:
> https://www.opinionatedgeek.com/codecs/base64decoder
>
> 4. The Vanagon List, aka Gerry, operates in plain text only; it cannot
> convert Base64 encoding to plain text, so these unreadable messages are
> going into the archives just as they are: unreadable.
>
> 5. In digest mode Gerry compiles messages from the archives and sends
> them out periodically as a group of messages. If a message is
> unreadable in the archives, it will be unreadable when you receive it in
> digest mode.
>
> 6. If you are not receiving messages in digest mode, it is my
> understanding that each individual message is relayed directly from the
> sender to you, without going through Gerry. For those of you who say
> you have never experienced a problem, you are likely not receiving
> messages in digest mode, and your email client is decoding the Base64
> message and converting it to plain text.
>
> 7. The unfortunate aspect to all this, beside those of us in digest
> mode being unable to easily read some messages (without manually
> decoding them), is that the archives are being corrupted with messages
> that also cannot be read without manually decoding them. See for
> yourself by going to the archives to peruse the messages:
> http://gerry.vanagon.com/archives/vanagon.html
>
> 8. The solution is for everyone on the list to ensure that you are
> sending messages in plain text, nothing else. As I said, I'm no expert,
> so I cannot tell you how to do this within all the various email
> clients.
>
> It was my hope back in 2009, and remains now, that someone acquainted
> with the various email clients and the means by which one selects for
> plain text, and/or the means by which the coding/decoding information is
> contained in the email headers, could provide a tutorial for fixing this
> problem. I would if I could, but this is way outside my area of
> expertise.
>
| 
