<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">Dear Tweets. As many recall, Tweeters is sponsored by the University of Washington which has authority over the our listserve (run on Mailman 2 at present) and its workings. Tweeters is grateful to the UW for just shy of 50 years of that support. Over that near half-century, UW-IT has rolled with changing times and the need for increased internet security, periodically making changes in how things work. As a recent consequence, posts sent in by some of our contributors are being converted into an attachment with a link. This "scrubbed" HTML-converted message essentially hides the text of that post from easy viewing and becomes all that a Digest subscriber sees (there is a way to read that message but it is fraught). <span class="" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">Thus, you have likely seen recent dialogue about posts </span>"<span class="" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">not showing up</span>"<span class="" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;"> in the Tweeters Digest version.</span><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><br class=""></div><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class="">As a reminder, your Tweeters subscription can be set for each post to arrive as it is sent in, or as a single Tweeters Digest of all posts from the prior 24 hours, arriving just before noon Pacific time each day. For perspective, approximately 2/3 of Tweeters subscribers prefer to receive the Digest version. Note that those affected by missing text are the<i class=""> readers of the Digest</i>, most of whom are unaware that anything is missing. But what causes text to go missing lies with the process of <i class="">posting</i>: it turns out that certain email clients and certain formats signal Mailman to make this conversion. </div><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Another twist: many who contribute to Tweeters prefer to receive (and thus read) the post-by-post, non-Digest version. Therefore this sizable group is largely unaware that their contributions are basically invisible to folks who read the Digest.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Our purpose in writing is to increase awareness of this issue<span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class=""> </span>and to relate that those whose posts are going missing should compose in PLAIN TEXT not rich text format. One can set that from the menu bar when sending an email (c<span class="" style="orphans: 2; widows: 2;">ommonly used systems Gmail, Outlook, etc. provide options for sending messages this way).</span> Contributors whose posts have been recognized to be "missing" are being contacted directly with this suggestion, <span style="font-size: 14.666666984558105px;" class="">to help make sure their posts reach the widest possible distribution</span>. At our Admin end, we will also continue to troubleshoot and of course invite anyone who needs further help to contact us directly (<a href="mailto:tweeters-owner@mailman11.u.washington.edu" class="">tweeters-owner@mailman11.u.washington.edu</a>).</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div class="">We are indebted to Jane Hadley (as is so often the case!) for her very helpful post on July 10, 2025, which is pasted below for your reference.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Tweeters Administrators, Seattle</div><div class=""> Elaine Chuang elc at uw dot edu</div><div class=""> Doug Santoni dougsantoni at gmail dot com</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><blockquote style="margin: 0 0 0 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;" class=""><div class=""><div class="">From: Jane Hadley</div></div><div class=""><div class="">Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2025 4:55 PM</div></div><div class=""><div class="">To: Tweeters, Dear <<a href="mailto:tweeters@u.washington.edu" class="">tweeters@u.washington.edu</a>></div></div><div class=""><div class="">Subject: Re: [Tweeters] question (Diann MacRae via Tweeters)</div></div><div class=""><div class=""> </div></div><div class=""><div class="">Dear Tweetsters: For a long time, I have been unable to see the content in Diann MacRae's Tweeters messages -- unless I click on the URL link at the bottom of the message. I get Tweeters via the Digest, so this URL may be available only for those who receive Tweeters via the Digest or at the UW's Tweeters archives.</div></div><div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class=""><div class="">When I click on that URL at the bottom of the message - URL: <a href="http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20250709/f8f5e391/attachment-0001.html" class="">http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20250709/f8f5e391/attachment-0001.html</a></div></div><div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class=""><div class="">I am taken to a web page that displays her message, but the message is encased in html markup, that is, commands enclosed in angle brackets saying how the message should be displayed. </div></div><div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class=""><div class="">(It's not just Diann's messages. There are a few other Tweeter contributors whose messages have the same issue.)</div></div><div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class=""><div class="">I suspect the problem is the email client that Diann (and others who are have the same issue) are using. I think there is probably nothing Diann can do other than to use a different device or program to send the messages. </div></div><div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class=""><div class="">The Tweeters listserv software is old and cannot handle all formats.</div></div><div class=""><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><div class=""><div class="">Some Tweeters subscribers choose to get individual Tweeters messages forwarded on to them rather than having a digest that packages up all of a day's messages once a day and sends them out in a single email. I get the Digest, so I cannot say how Diann's messages are displayed in the individual emails that are forwarded. I wouldn't be surprised if those messages came through just fine.</div></div><div class=""><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><div class="">I just now checked The Birding Lists Digest site that shows Tweeters messages on a web page ( <a href="http://digest.sialia.com/?rm=one_list;id=141" class="">http://digest.sialia.com/?rm=one_list;id=141</a> ) and I find that the content of Diann's message is entirely missing. And the URL at the bottom simply links to the Tweeters information page, not to the content of the message.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">So the solution to this issue depends on how you get your Tweeters messages.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If you get them via the Digest, click on the URL at the bottom of the message.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">If you get individually forwarded emails, I am guessing you don't have a problem, unless you have an email program that is limited in formats it can handle (unlikely in this day and age). But I could be wrong about this, don't know.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Finally, if you read your Tweeters messages via the Birders List Digest, then I think you're out of luck there. You will not be able to read the message. But you can go to the UW Tweeters archives and find the message to get the URL at the bottom of the message and read the content (encased in html markup). Here is the link for that: <a href="https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/" class="">https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Regarding the sending side of this question, I believe that the best way to get messages you send to Tweeters to display perfectly is to send them to the extent possible in plain text. Avoid bold, italic, smart quotes, and angle brackets. It's easy enough to do most of these things, but to get rid of smart quotes, you have to either not use quotes at all or compose your message in a plain text editor rather than in something like Word. (A plain text quote is one where the quotes go straight up and down and there's no difference between the opening and closing quotes. Smart or curly quotes slant or curl one way for opening quotes and a different way for closing quotes.)</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Jane Hadley</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Seattle, WA</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><a href="mailto:hadleyj1725@gmail.com" class="">hadleyj1725@gmail.com</a></div></blockquote></div></div><br class=""></div></div></div><br class=""></body></html>