Multipart/alternative/html/encoded woes ...
I have my lists set up to block (reject) posts with HTML, but even this isn't really solving a whole lot of my problems, because people (mostly AOLers) continue to send messages in HTML and then wonder why they're not going through. Even though my reject message clearly states what the problem is and directs them to pages that have instructions for turning off the HTML in just about every mail program, every frickin' time AOL upgrades, it causes a whole new set of problems because the new program isn't on any of the instruction lists yet.
So I'm wondering... is there any way [or can anyone here come up with a way] to make Smartlist simply convert any and all HTML/encoded messages to plain text? There has got to be *some* way to make that happen, doesn't there? I have other friends running mailing lists using other software programs and they've been able to do this, so it seems like Smartlist should be able to as well.
The past few months a lot of my list members have taken to saying, "Smartlist isn't very smart, is it?" every time the program has difficulties handling particular types of messages. I just don't want to believe that because I'm sort of attached to it, but I must admit I'm starting to become more and more frustrated as times goes on. I swear I have just about every script possible in my various local and submit files, and I dunno..... It gets to a point where, when your whole program seems to be held together and controlled more by the spit-and-glue of numerous fixes than the basic program itself, you start wondering if the program you're using is the most efficient choice.
If I had a wish list of things I'd change about Smartlist, the first thing would be to have some way to set it to strip HTML from messages. I think that should be a basic part of the program, because HTML encoding is one of the biggest problems facing most list owners these days.
The second thing I'd change is the way the program cannot seem to interpret short messages with no subject line (or short subject lines) as posts, but flags them as "undecipherable" and sends out the help file. This is really annoying, and it happens all the time. A person on my list had a birthday today, and when someone attempted to send a message with the subject "30!" and a short note in the body wishing them a happy birthday, Smartlist bumped it and sent the help file.
Unfortunately, I don't have the skills to create a script to fix either thing myself. But I know several of you do, or know others who do, so I'm putting this out there in the hopes that someone here might be able to come up with something that could help.
Violet xoxox