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Do not attach files to email going to listserve addresses, like the district listserves.
We've recently seen a big increase in attaching files to emails bound for a listserver,
including the district listservers. The most recent one was today, going to 700+ addresses
of UW students. The most egregious one was a few weeks ago, a 12mb Publisher document
that clogged up email accounts and caused a lot of anger and pain directed toward the
person who sent it (a 12 megabyte attachment could take a few hours to download on a
56k modem connection). We've evolved as our
communications network has grown and with each increase in capability come new issues. This
particular issue deals with attaching files to listserve messages. Attaching files to
listserve messages is bad practice for a number of reasons:
Word processor (or spreadsheet or database) files are by nature much larger
than the same information in a plain email. It is a waste of bandwidth, and the email
takes longer to download, not an issue for folks like us on T1 connections, but hey,
most of the people we send to out there are on dial-up connections.
The recipient may not be able to open it. When you attach a Word document,
for example, you are making some remarkable assumptions. One is that everyone can open
it (not everyone in the world has Word). Second is that they have the same typeface
and exact printer that you have (if either one of those is not true, your careful
formatting is going to be for nothing and come out looking all goofy).
The load it puts on the servers... On ours when the mail goes out, and on the
receiving servers (both ours and the accounts with other ISP's). If a normal email
is, say, 4k in size... 4,000 bytes, nice and small, but it carries a 400k attachment
(and 400k is not large for a word processor document), and say the listserver has
100 addresses in it. Instead of sending out a total of 400,000 bytes (the total of
all the messages, each 4000 bytes), you are now sending out 40,400,000 bytes (the
total of all the messages plus the attachments). Now imagine that your mail server
is host to 8 listserver e-lists, like the district lists, each with 100 members,
and they all do the same thing. Now the load is 320,400,000 bytes.
In reality, our server is host to over 150 lists. Even if they were each as small
as 100 members, if they all did that one little word processor document attachment,
we're looking at a server load of 6,060,000,000 bytes. At that point we'd need a T3
connection to our servers instead of a T1, and I'd have to pass on the increased cost
of $1200/month to the regional offices, and we'd also need several additional mail
servers. The attachment will likely not get read because it's at least several more mouse-clicks to open a program, then find where the attachment is, then open it, something that most folks are not willing to do unless they have asked you for a file. And if people open the attachment the "easy way" by double-clicking on it, they are doing something I've been trying to get people to stop doing because of the virus risk.
If you have text that absolutely must have formatting (bold, italic, font-size, etc),
the way to do it is compose the document in your email program and add the formatting. If
the document is already saved as a word processor document, then simply "select all"
from the word processor and then "copy" and then "paste" it into the
compose screen of your email program.
Another thing to be aware of is using "backgrounds" (unique to Microsoft
Outlook or Outlook Express users). If your recipient(s) do not have the capability of
displaying backgrounds, your email will be displayed full of gobbledygook code and a
whole block of "junk" characters (which is actually the ascii encapsulation of
the jpeg or gif image that was intended to display as a background image). Some of these
background images are several hundred thousand bytes, making them just as unfortunate as
attached files.
It is in the interest of accessibility and clear communication to refrain from
using backgrounds in listservers as well as file attachments!
If you ever have questions about something you're not sure about, or have other suggestions
for "Common Sense 101" topics, call or send email to
Allen Kahl at the Conference Office of Communications and Technical Services, communications@WisconsinUMC.org
toll-free number 1.888.240.7328.
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