Mailto tags and URLs (by which I mean at least chiefly expressions starting
with http, https, or ftp) depend for their clickability on the software
configuration of the viewer, not necessarily that of the sender.
(For example, my Mac's ICeTEe utility lets me view them in clickable
form either in my outgoing messages or in incoming messages, whether in
header or in body.)

Bill wrote in part:

>Some e-mail clients, most notably AOL, require links be constructed
>differently for them to be clickable.  AOL wants the full anchor form

As he implied, though, this affects the viewer, not the sender or recipient
as such.

Douglas wrote in part:

>send ... in HTML format [or] present them that way (or pre-process them
>in some fashion before LISTSERV receives the message).

It's true that interpretation of an HTML message (with bold, italics,
centering, and so on) depends on the sender's adherence to HTML
standards with respect to its content (including its starting with a
tag consisting of "HTML" or "html" enclosed of course in angle brackets),
but clickability of links depends on narrower considerations, these not
necessarily having to do with the sender--or the listserver. After all,
as Pete noted, even the "Language= NoHtml" setting retains HTML tags,
including those in compliance with standards of course, in the body of
a plain text message.


Chuck Brandstater
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