No, we should not allow attachments on the list. People who are trying to post attachments are usually those who are asking questions, not those providing answers. If the list would allow attachments, that would make it easier for the questioner. On the other hand, it would impose additional work on the answer providers since they would have to manually delete the attachments in their inboxes if they want to keep their inbox small (some companies like mine impose size limits on inboxes). This might scare away some of the answer providing people. We definitely don't want that. With this in mind, the attachments would not raise the overall quality of the posts on the list. Your third point (make people think before posting) is a very essential one, I think.
An attachment sent to the list will be stored on all subscribers' computers regardless of their interest in the particular topic. The current method of posting a link is much better: those who are interested can access the image, those not interested are not being bothered by useless data on their computers.
My CHF 0.02.
Peter
_________________________________ Dr. Peter U. Frei Rockwell Automation AG IEC Power Components, Dept. ER Buchserstrasse 35 CH-5001 Aarau Switzerland pfrei_at_ra.rockwell.com Phone: +41 62 837 24 47 Fax: +41 62 837 29 17
Martin Liddle Sent by: xansys-bounces_at_xansys.org 18.04.2008 08:28 Please respond to ANSYS User Discussion List
To xansys_at_xansys.org cc
Subject [Xansys] [ADMIN] Should we allow attachments?
Since we moved XANSYS to our own server five years ago, we have had a policy of removing all attachments (with the exception of ASCII text (allowing log files to be sent)). This has been done for a number of reasons:
To prevent transmission of possible virus laden material.
To keep individual postings and the XANSYS archive to a reasonable size.
To make people think before posting.
However it is true that a picture is worth a thousand words and the Mailman software gives us a lot of control over what is filtered. So now that we have a whizzy new server, should we allow small pictures in say jpeg format? -- Martin Liddle, Tynemouth Computer Services, 3 Kentmere Way, Staveley, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, S43 3TW. Web site: . ^-------------------------------------------------------- | XANSYS - www.xansys.org | | The Discussion List for users of ANSYS, Inc. Software | | Hosted by PADT - www.padtinc.com | ^--------------------------------------------------------