Statalist


[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: st: Re: Difficulty with posting and replying


From   Michael Hanson <[email protected]>
To   [email protected]
Subject   Re: st: Re: Difficulty with posting and replying
Date   Sat, 02 May 2009 14:24:24 -0400

Frank:

For what it's worth, I also post to Statalist from a .Mac account using Apple's Mail.app with OS X 10.5.6 (Leopard). However, I have not experienced any of the issues you cite. Here are my settings that may be relevant:

1. Default format for mail messages in Mail.app: Plain Text. (In Mail.app, open Preferences and click on "Composing" among the icons along the top of the dialog box. The first item under "Composing" should read "Message Format:" -- choose "Plain Text" from the drop- down menu.)

2. Text encoding in Mail.app: "Automatic".

3. "Use fixed-width font for plain text messages" in Mail.app: checked. (In Preferences of Mail.app, go to "Fonts & Colors" and look for the corresponding checkbox. On the Mac I find Monaco to be a good fixed-width font for reading code -- one can distinguish "1" from "l", "0" from "O", and "`" from "'" fairly easily.)

4. Signature in Mail.app:  None.

5. Default font in Stata: Monaco.

6. Default line endings in Stata: Unix.


Some other notes and thoughts; apologies if these are already known to you:

1. Stick some garbage characters at the top of your messages. Martin uses "<>" (that is, "less than sign" then "greater than sign"); after some experimenting (years ago), I have settled on typing a space, a period, a tab, and two returns before I start the text of my messages (including replies). (Note that the FAQ states that "Majordomo sometimes misreads posts and in particular can chop the first line", while my experience has been that it takes my first 2 lines _every_ time for messages from my .Mac account. YMMV.)

2. I send my messages to "[email protected]", and they seem to always go through (although occasionally with a delay). Per the FAQ, avoid replying to old messages to start a new (and unrelated) message -- that will screw up message threading both in Mail.app and the archives.

3. If you are uncertain if a message went through, check the archives at <http://www.stata.com/statalist/archive/>. Worst case, you could e- mail Marcello (very rarely!!) or the person to whom you are replying to see if they have received your message, or would be willing to (one time only) post on your behalf. Do not abuse this suggestion.

4. Delete the long trail of Statalist footers at the end of messages when multiple replies are included in your message. If more people would take this courtesy, it would help make the archives smaller and easier to read for all. (Forgetting on occasion is hardly a major faux pas.)

Hope this helps,
Mike


On May 2, 2009, at 11:25 AM, Martin Weiss wrote:

<>

"> Martin uses the <> at the top of his messages because Stata FAQ 2.2
(see: http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/ statalist.html#before ) states that the list server can sometimes "chop the first few lines" "

True, I used to put a sentence there, but the "<>" is much less intrusive. I do not recall the last incident where it was needed, though...

HTH
Martin
_______________________
----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric A. Booth" <[email protected] >
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, May 02, 2009 4:47 PM
Subject: Re: st: Re: Difficulty with posting and replying


Frank:

Martin uses the <> at the top of his messages because Stata FAQ 2.2 (see: http://www.stata.com/support/faqs/res/statalist.html#before ) states that the list server can sometimes "chop the first few lines" of an email/posting. So, his <> symbol will be cut if any of the server does remove the first line(s).


You've probably tried this, but if the email program you are using (which according to your X-MAILER properties in your message is Apple Mail (mail.app) 2.9) is attaching a signature to your outgoing mail, this signature is html format. So, while you may be converting you message to 'plain-text' before sending it on the mac (by highlighting you message and pressing Shift+Command+T), your signature injects new html code into your message as it leaves your computer. (Remember that mail.app can be synching your signatures with your mobile me account in the background (see Mail Menu>Preferences> General Tab> Mobile Me... ) )


If this is not your problem, then there may be bigger issues:
1. what kind of text encoding are you using (see Message Menu>Text Encoding)? You might try switching to utf-8 (which would get you to 8- Bit encoding), right now your messages use are using mac's automatic encoding (text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes) & your content-encoding scheme is 7-bit. Your outgoing server (smtp.mac.com) provides a content transfer method for encoding the message (e.g., 7-bit, 8-bit, and binary methods), when SMTP transmits data in 7-bit MIME defines how 8-bit data can be encoded in 7-bit byte stream for transmission in SMTP. So, there may be something going on with your outgoing server @mac.com that could be resolved by using a 8-bit encoding, like utf-8. 2. It is likely that the mac.com SMTP server may be your own worst enemy. There are lots of reports of mobile me (mac.com) periodically dumping messages from certain ISP's (especially after they've been tagged as having some user sending out a lot of spam). I notice that your IP address and your outgoing smtp relay (e.g., asmtp011.mac.com, asmtp022.mac.com) have changed over the course of your email messages to Statalist from April 24 to today. Are you noticing any patterns of your Statalist postings being 'lost' when sending just from work or home, etc? See this link for an interesting example of similar messages being 'lost' and someways to test this using Terminal and telnet( http://the.taoofmac.com/space/blog/2008/03/09/1100 ).

If you go to the Mail Menu > Preferences > Viewing Pref. Tab and choose "Show Header Detail = All" and then check the full headers of your messages that made it through to Statalist versus the ones that did not, that might help you diagnose the differences among these messages. If you want to send me the output of the headers on your unsuccessful headers, I can take a look & compare them to your recent 'successful' postings.

Good luck.


Eric

__
Eric A. Booth
Public Policy Research Institute
Texas A&M University
[email protected]
Office: +979.845.6754
Fax: +979.845.0249



On May 2, 2009, at 7:53 AM, [email protected] wrote:

Hi Martin,

I was thinking maybe my dilemma involves copying and pasting text (e.g., syntax). So I replied to your last message, pasted some text from a message that I have been trying to post, and sent it. The message did not post. So if this message gets posted, it may be the copy and paste mechanism causing me difficulties. We will see.

Best,
Frank

On May 2, 2009, at 7:58 AM, Martin Weiss wrote:

<>

Nick`s advice http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/lwgate/STATALIST/archives/statalist.0904/Author/article-593.html still applies, although I am aware how frustrating it can be sometimes. Plain text-ing from the adress subscribed on Statalist normally guarantees success...


HTH
Martin
_______________________
----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, May 02, 2009 1:51 PM
Subject: st: Difficulty with posting and replying


Hi All,

I am having difficulty posting and replying to posts: "It is a hit or miss adventure." I format my posts and replies in plain text. I am using a mac (Leopard OS). I hope this message posts. Does anyone have suggestions? Thank you.

Best,
Frank

*
*   For searches and help try:
*   http://www.stata.com/help.cgi?search
*   http://www.stata.com/support/statalist/faq
*   http://www.ats.ucla.edu/stat/stata/



© Copyright 1996–2024 StataCorp LLC   |   Terms of use   |   Privacy   |   Contact us   |   What's new   |   Site index