Gavin wondered...

>Am I totally off-base with this, or ...

No, you're not alone. It's a pain to see those various cryptic formats,
attachments, monster-quotings (ranging from complete original messages
over complete threads up to complete day's digest... sigh) and the like.
Not to mention those read-ack-floods that arise from time to time.

$big sigh$ Are we heading for the Internet version of Babel here?

I vote for ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange).
Notice the words "standard" (not vendor proprietary) and "information
interchange" (not fancy-schmancy multi-media and visual effects show).

$end rant$

I have sent off-list replies to various posters from time to time,
trying to make them aware of the problem (sometimes they cannot even
see what they are causing because their mail client makes everything
appear ok). Unfortunately I frequently cannot help out with tips for
proper client configuration, as I do not use MS xyz and company.

So Gavin's idea to have a "mail client ABC" sounds reasonable to me.

Oh, and I don't think it should make a difference if someone is hp3k
sys admin, or general manager or whatever else. Using only a properly
configured eMail client for information interchange should be a kind
of "fundamental education" in the Internet age.

Lars.

(can only contribute Eudora and Pegasus config tips to the FAQ).