>
>1) Attachments are an invaluable tool for scientific (and other)
>exchange of information that cannot be presented as unformatted text.
>The trade-off is that you also accept the risk of viruses. This is
>similar to accepting 30,000 people to be killed in traffic accidents
This is an incredibly arrogant response to what was a perfectly
reasonable request. Attachments should only be sent to recipients who
request or expect them.
Anyone who has been on the internet for more than the past couple of
years understands that it is terrible practice to distribute
attachments to mailing lists. It is rude, wasteful, and dangerous. If
you think that your antiviral software is going to catch every new
virus coming along, you are tremendously, and dangerously, naive.
Every modern mail list server has the ability to block attachments,
and this options should be used on the ABRF.
I have lobbied before to have the ABRF use a moderated list; this and
a few good practices like replying off line and writing summaries to
answered questions would improve the signal to noise ratio
significantly.
Pontificating about how if you get a virus it's your own fault doesn't.
Dennis
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Apr 02 2001 - 10:20:50 EDT