[PAA-Webteam] Draft FAQ for why not send attachments to lists

Below is a draft FAQ for why people shouldn't send attachments to our
e-mail lists, and what to do instead when they want to share a file
with everyone. Let me know your comments.

(By the way, the PAA web site was responding very sloooooowly this
morning, and I got several timeout errors. Seems to be better now,
though. Wonder if they are having server problems?

- - - - -

Don't send attachments to e-mail lists--Put them on web site instead

This FAQ explains why you should not send attachments with e-mail
messages that you send to our lists, and how to share those files
with everyone in another way.

Many people want to share the latest political cartoon, photo, MS
Word or Powerpoint file, MP3 song, or other file with others on our
e-mail lists.

This is a great way to communicate ideas, and can certainly be more
interesting than reading a lot of text. It's easy to send an
attachment, and most people can get and open most attachments without
a problem.

However, some people have problems opening attachments, and it also
causes other problems, so we strongly discourage you from adding
attachments to messages you send to our lists. This includes
forwarded messages, too. There are better ways of sharing your files
with others, and we'll help you do this-- see below.

Reasons why you should not send attachments to our lists include:

1. Attachments are one of the main ways that viruses, worms, and
other malware spread, especially to Windows users. EXE executables
are one obvious way they can spread, but not the only way.

2. People who use digest mode for our lists often can't open the
attachments, and sometimes it interferes with them reading other
messages in the same digest. (Digest mode is where the mail server
collects messages sent to the list, and then sends them out at the
end of the day in a single "digest" message, so you don't get so many
individual e-mail messages each day.)

3. Large attachments take a long time to download for people using
dial-up Internet connections. If they don't want the attachment, or
are running short on disk space, they'll just delete it anyway, and
it irritates people when you force them to download a file that they
don't want just so they can delete it and get to their next mail
message.

4. Large attachments eat up bandwidth and disk space. A single
photo can take the same bandwidth and disk space as many text
messages, and when you send it to everyone on a list, these
requirements are greatly multiplied.

5. Netiquette guidelines say that you shouldn't send large files or
messages to people unless you know they want it.

6. Attachments can't be accessed from the Mailman archives nor from
the PAA forums (where messages sent to our e-mail lists are
automatically posted. Thus, people who want to find an attachment
that was sent to the list in the past can't get to them unless they
personally saved the attachment on their computer.

7. Attachments can't be located with the search function on our web
site. Text describing a file that is in our photo gallery or
downloads sections can be easily located via by searching, though.

8. Not everyone may have the application needed to open your file.

9. People may not have the time to look at your attachment when you
first send your mail message, but they may want to find it later
(perhaps weeks later). It's difficult or impossible to do this if
it's attached to a mail message, especially one without a descriptive
title, or which the recipient deleted because it took up too much
disk space.

10. One of the main reasons why some people don't want to be on our
e-mail lists, or drop off of our lists after being on them for a
while, is that they get too much e-mail and especially don't want to
get messages that take too long to download or take up too much disk
space. We don't want people to drop off of our lists because of this.

We don't want to discourage you from sharing photos, cartoons, songs,
or other files with people on our e-mail lists. We just want to keep
from annoying those folks who won't be able to enjoy the file (see
above), and to make it easier for people to find the file later.

So, do this instead:

1. Make sure the file is in a format that everyone can open. This
means it's best to avoid Microsoft proprietary formats (for MS Word,
Excel, Powerpoint, etc.), or other formats that require a program
that not everyone may have and which require non-free programs to
open. RTF (interchange format) is best for formatted word processing
documents that someone may need to edit. PDF (Portable Document
Format) is best for formatted documents that don't need to be edited.
MP3 is best for audio files. GIF is best for photos and similar
graphics. If you aren't sure, or need help converting a file to a
different format, send a message to our web team at
and ask.

2. Run a virus check on the file with your favorite virus checker, to
make sure it's not going to infect other people's computers. This is
especially important if you got it in an e-mail from someone else.

3. Rather than sending a file as an e-mail attachment, it's better
to upload the file to the photo gallery or downloads section of the
PAA web site, then send a text message to one or more of our lists,
giving a short description of the file and giving the URL (address,
link) on where to find it. For example, you could send an e-mail
message that says "If you want to get the flyer we distributed at the
2006 Martin Luther King, Jr. parade in Houston, you can get it from
the PAA's web site, in the Impeach downloads section, at
http://www.paa-tx.org/?q=node/1244 . It describes how Bush is
destroying MLK's legacy, why Bush should be impeached, and has
contact information for Houston-area US Representatives. You can
find other downloads at http://www.paa-tx.org/downloads ." A message
like this makes it easy for people to find your file using the web
site's search function, because the text of your message is posted in
our forums, and all that is searchable.

We don't have a way (yet) where you can upload a file to our web site
yourself. So, in the meantime, please mail it to
and we'll upload it for you, and send you a link that you can include
in a mail message like the example above, that you send to all your
friends (on our lists or others).

I know this may seem like a nuisance for you to do this, but it's
often a nuisance for multiple people (although certainly not
everyone) when attachments are sent to our e-mail lists. Let's be
courteous to others.

Again, if you have questions or problems, please contact the PAA web
team at