It's a pretty easy question. Microsoft Outlook and Internet Mail
Service appear to default to two states:

* HTML mail
* When replying, you are given a blank space at the top in which to
write, followed by the entire previous message.

Microsoft Hatemail also does the reply-to-everything by default.

These two trends significantly worsen the experience of reading
mailing lists. We have to wade through unnecessary duplications (up
to *seven levels deep*, in my experience), and people without
HTML-compatible mailers, and everyone on DIGEST who isn't receiving
MIME also, see garbage.

Microsoft mailers are defaults in Windows and Macintosh, and they're
free, so it's hard to persuade people that software like Eudora,
which is better-behaved but costs money, is worth it.

Is it excessive to blame Microsoft for destroying the enjoyment of
today's mailing lists?

(I am quite aware that people can and do turn off HTML and avoid
quoting the whole preceding message. But don't try to kid me: We know
from experience as listowners that *maybe* one in ten does so.)

--
           Joe Clark
           [log in to unmask]
           <http://www.joeclark.uni.cc> (updated 1999.11.03)