The copies below may explain why some messages may be containing "ugly" looking
extra text.  The "ugly" text is most likely because the message was sent with an
attachment of some sort such as a v-card, a forwarded text message, or some
other text-only attachment.  Messages with such text-only attachments are being
accepted, but the message headers, which are usually "hidden" may be shown as
text in the message.


-COPY FOR GENERAL INFO-<<<

Subject: Re: VCARD??? BLOCKING???
   Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 04:57:33 -0700
     To: [email protected]

       Was I mistaken or were there blockers set up against the VCARD

You weren't mistaken -- I expected the filter to block VCARDS as well as other
attachments.  I was mistaken.

Since VCARDS are apparently just formatted text, this doesn't seem like a big
deal -- it just comes out looking like an awfully ugly, ungainly signature
file.  We could fix the filter to block VCARDS, too, but I think I won't unless
a lot of people object.

Regards,
Tim Pierce
RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative
system obfuscator and hack-of-all-trades
______________________________

Subject: Re: Blocking Attachments and HTML
   Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 15:24:54 -0700
     To: [email protected]

 Thanks for the announcement.  Does this imply that the hack/filter will
> block ALL attachments, including plain text, or only those which have
> invalid content?  The announcement seemed unclear (or I am, maybe one
> more cup of coffee).

You're right, it wasn't really clear on that point.  What we actually did is a
little complicated.

When someone sends a message with attachments to your list, the list server will
look to see if any of the attachments are icky stuff: HTML, enriched text, JPEG,
MS-Word, whatever.  If it does contain any such encoded attachments, the message
will be rejected.

If the submission only contains plain text attachments -- such as a forwarded
e-mail message from someone else -- the filter will adjust the headers a little
bit to make the message *not look like an attachment*, and will pass it on.  The
effect is that if you've attached a text file to the bottom of your message,
it'll go on to the list, but it won't behave like an attachment.

Clear as mud?  That's the solution that we hope will be most effective for most
of the listowners -- eliminate the problems of attaching files to messages, but
don't make it impossible to forward text files to the list.

Regards,
Tim Pierce
RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative
system obfuscator and hack-of-all-trades
______________________________

Subject: Blocking Attachments and HTML
 Resent-From: [email protected]
       Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 08:59:54 -0700

Hi, folks --

Well, it took almost two months longer than expected, but we're right now
installing a SmartList hack that blocks file attachments (including VCARDS),
HTML messages and enriched text postings. Sorry about the delay: things have
been crazy around here.

This note is to let you know how it works.  When a poster sends something to a
mailing list written in HTML, or with a non-plain-text attached file, the list
server will send the poster's message back to them, with a note at the bottom
explaining the plain-text requirement at RootsWeb....

This change is not currently something the listowner can turn on and off. 
Attachments will be blocked from every list alike.  This might not be to the
taste of some listowners, so we'll consider closely whether it would be safe to
make it an optional setting.

Thanks to Marc Nozell for finding the SmartList patch that was used as the basis
for this fix!

Regards,
Tim Pierce
RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative
volunteer sysadmin and general hacker

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