The lists I belong to, especially the ones I moderate, through Yahoo!Groups
have had the Attachment feature turned off for quite some time for this very
reason. Most of these list hosts allow files to be upladed and notification
sent out. That way, if people want to look at them, they can. (This also
saves the non-US people from long, expensive downloads. Let's remember to be
kind to the people that pay per minute for iInternet use.)
When I sent attachments to people, I ALWAYS state that I have launched them
and found them safe. That way, if something DOES happen to come in with an
attachment that does NOT have that disclaimer, the people I know do NOT open
them. I also send out warnings to people after hearing about AND checking out
a particularily nasty virus. I have been slapped by some people on other
lists for "wasting their time". But I tell them to use the very easily
accessable <DELETE> key and to learn to deal with it. Knowledge is power and
without the knowledge, there is no power, so a couple of "wasted" emails is
well worth it to the others that may be saved from a virus because of a
warning I send.
Mary Blanton (The Geek on many of her lists.)
Leslie Fairall wrote:
> Mary:
>
> You are right on this one. One suggestion I have is for people to not send
> messages in HTML, but in plain text. If you are on a list with a lot of
> people such as this one one, it is even more critical. Some viruses, like
> the Kakworm, can attach themselves to the HTML. Mailing lists should not
> allow attachments to be posted either. That's a great way to get several
> hundred people infected. So folks, turn off your HTML!
>
> VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
> To join or leave the list, send a message to
> [log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
> "subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
> VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
> http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
VICUG-L is the Visually Impaired Computer User Group List.
To join or leave the list, send a message to
[log in to unmask] In the body of the message, simply type
"subscribe vicug-l" or "unsubscribe vicug-l" without the quotations.
VICUG-L is archived on the World Wide Web at
http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/vicug-l.html
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