Should we block non-text messages on this list? State your opinion.
In general, I'd have said "yes". But points raised by Nikhil Bhaskaran and Amish Mehta are very relevant.
1. If a new user joins the list and all his (urgent) posts bounce because he didn't switch off "Send mail in HTML" in his mail client, perhaps it's unnecessarily discouraging to him. Can our mail mgmt software at least bounce his mail back to him telling him precisely why it bounced? If yes, then I feel this class of problems can be taken care of.
2. Someone finds an interesting article in PDF/MS Word format, which he desperately wants to share with others on the Net. We shouldn't totally ban these; we should just ensure that they are a minority. Therefore, in legit situations with non-text attachments, can a list member write to the list admin and ask him to push the mail and attachments through as a special case? If yes, I am game for an only-text mail policy.
These were the only two reservations I have.
regards, Shuvam