Re: Making future online meetings work

[tom petch <[e-mail]>]

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Andrews <[e-mail]>
Cc: <[e-mail]>
Sent: 22/04/2020 01:51:37

> On 22 Apr 2020, at 04:49, Keith Moore <[e-mail]> wrote:
> 
> On 4/21/20 2:28 PM, Salz, Rich wrote:
> 
> (regarding the abysmal state of MUAs these days)
> 
>>> ... but it's pretty much the general state of affairs now.
>> And so you try to fight it, or you accommodate it.
> 
> Or some of each.
> 
> I find myself wondering:
> 
> - whether IETF participants are willing to change habits of using email (e.g. using IMAP, and flagging or refiling messages that are too long to read on mobile devices, so that they can be read and responded to later),
> 
> - to what extent existing MUAs could be used differently, or configured differently, to make them more effective for IETF-style collaboration,
> 
> - whether it's feasible to improve some existing dysfunctional MUAs or create new ones that work better, and
> 
> - whether IETF participants using existing dysfunctional MUAs are willing/able to change those MUAs
> 
> From my current state of understanding, it seems like there's a lot of inertia that would have to be overcome to make such changes.
> 
> At the same time, there seems to be at least as much inertia that would have to be overcome to get any other collaboration system as usable, effective, accessible, searchable, archiveable, free from vendor lockin, etc. as email currently is, even in its current sad state.
> 
> Keith

Also fix the idiocy of setting font sizes in email.  Google web email appears to be infected with this disease. Its hard enough reading email on a phone without the reply text being in a smaller than standard font size.  Email is not paper and MUA need to stop playing games with font sizes.

Phillip Hallum-Baker’s email’s are a prime example (but it is not limited to Phil)

<div dir=3D"ltr"><div dir=3D"ltr"><div class=3D"gmail_default" style=3D"fon=
t-size:small">I am not surprised to see the privacy point raised here. And =
the Apple/Google proposal is certainly very robust as far as protecting pri=
vacy goes. I made a video presentation looking at the proposal in detail fo=
r my YouTube cryptography course which should be out in the next couple of =

Phil’s comments basically get ignored unless I remember to go back and re-read the thread when I’m at my desk.

This is primarily the result of taking a tool that was designed for printing to paper and using it for entering email content.  This is BAD UX design.

<tp>
And it is not just a question of making it harder to get work done, which of course it does.  It also allows breaches of security which, given the amount of effort the IETF has put into security in the past few years, makes me surprised that IETF e-mail is allowed to carry HTML.  Strip the HTML out on the mail server, leaving just the plain text alternative, and the world would be a safer place.  (

---
New Outlook Express and Windows Live Mail replacement - get it here:
https://www.oeclassic.com/

Of course, proper MUA used to allow this as an option but, sadly, that seems to have gone so we need to change the MUA).

Tom Petch


Mark
-- 
Mark Andrews, ISC
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