Problems with Code in SERIALST Digests Birdie MacLennan 06 Aug 2009 20:41 UTC
Hi Everyone, Some of you who receive SERIALST as a daily digest have written recently to report problems with heavy coding and "formatting garbage" that gets included in messages and makes the Digest mostly unreadable. If you are affected by this problem, try changing your digest setting your serialst subscription option to the mime or html setting. Here's how: send a one line message to: listserv@list.uvm.edu Leave the subject line blank. Your one line message should say: set serialst html digest If you don't like the html digest setting, try the command: set serialst mime digest If you want to abandon the digest, try the command: set serialst mail (the problem does not exist when you receive individual messages as they are posted) If you want to signoff or unsubscribe from SERIALST, send the command: signoff serialst You can also manage your subscription from the subscriber's corner link on the web site: http://list.uvm.edu/archives/serialst.html (to manage your subn on the web site, you need to set up a login account with a userid and pw) Finally, if you have problems updating your subscription options because the server doesn't recognize you because of an address change since you signed on, feel free to send a message to the address: serialst-request@list.uvm.edu, and one of the moderators will try to help. Why Does the Default Digest Contain so Much Code? The problem started occuring sometime in June. Essentially, that is when we lifted a long-standing ban on posting messages with HTML formatting to SERIALST. This was at the request of a subscriber who was having problems posting messages to SERIALST due to special character formatting codes in the messages which neither of us could figure out how to strip. This inspired a testing period during which the HTML filters were lifted. We found that allowing messages with HTML code works fine for individual messages and web archives. However, it also wreaks havoc with the default digest setting in LISTSERV, which doesn't support anything besides plain text ... and, unfortunately, doesn't know how to convert coded messages to plain text. It reminded me that this was one of the reasons that we didn't accept messages with special formatting codes for so many years -- it messes up the default Digests! I consulted with the SERIALST Moderator Group, and there was general consensus that we should continue to allow HTML formatting for individual messages and web archives -- but also advise subscribers with the Digest setting of the problem and potential work-arounds. That was preferred over filtering out the messages with code, in order to preserve the plain text digest formatting. I also ran a report on SERIALST subscriber settings found that, in a list of 3265 subscribers, 442 are set to digest, or about 12% of subscribers. Many of the digest subscribers are still set to the default (plain text), so I assume you are receiving digests with the nasty code displays; many of you are also set to HTML or MIME digest settings -- one of these settings often solves the problem. Some of you may opt for the generic mail setting, to receive individual messages that look normal. Some of you may wish to unsubscribe, too, and that is fine. Remember that SERIALST's web archives are freely available: http://list.uvm.edu/archives/serialst.html If you set a bookmark there and click on the "Date" in the top column, you can search the archives or browse the latest monthly messages by ascending or descending sort order, etc. Sorry for the long message. I hope this helps clarify some of the issues and problems for those of you who may have been wondering. If you have questions or comments, feel free to email me directly. As always, thanks to the Moderators Group for your advice and support: Ann Ercelawn, Vanderbilt University; Stephen Clark, College of William & Mary; and Bob Persing, University of Pennsylvania; and Marcia Tuttle (occasional consultant). Thanks, too, to you, many subscribers and contributors who keep SERIALST alive and busy -- and who bring your concerns to our attention. Kind regards, -Birdie Birdie MacLennan Bailey/Howe Library E-mail: bmaclenn@uvm.edu University of Vermont AIM/IM: birdieatbailey 538 Main Street Phone: 802-656-2016 Burlington, VT 05405, USA Fax: 802-656-4038 Library Professor / Director, Resource Description and Analysis SERIALST Listowner & Moderator http://www.uvm.edu/~bmaclenn/serialst.html