Dear L'ers:

I experimented a few weeks ago, during the 're:attachments' discussion,
by sending a few attachments of my own. BTW, More are coming. On a
friday I posted images to a web sight and duly cited it in my post. I
was asking for assistance in identifying certain objects. Interestingly
the post gleaned little response (2 lost pals saying hi, and 1 relevant
response). Needless to say, I was dissaponted with only one (1) relevant
response, knowing the size and breadth of Museum-L.

On monday, while the debate on attahcments was waning, I posted the same
messege but this time with the image attached. As a result, by tuesday I
recieved 2 complaints, followed by 7 relevant responses :-). The
complaints centered on the discussions at hand regarding attachements.

The morale of the story: [you tell me]

The cons against attachments are summed up generally as follows:

a) end user has old/incompatable technology.
b) sender has poor netiquette skills.
c) end user is in digest mode and the digest becomes inflated.

I appreciate all of these reasons, though with 1/2 of (a) the least.
After all, compatable software is free. Hardware on the otherhand...,
well I sympathize.

With respect to item (b), I think that attachments should be band-width
friendly. I don't know where the absolute line is, but 7mb (the size of
the attachment that stared the original discussion) is poor judgement,
whereas 20k seems inoffensive.  Perhaps a disscussion will result in an
amendment to our list nettiquette giving guidlines on these matters.  I
would say that attachments breeching the 40k mark are suspect, twice
that are in poor judgement.

With respect to item (c), I apologize to you digesters, but the reason I
do what I do is because the end justifies the means. I have no solution
for you, except that I will keep my attachments as small as possible.

The pros, for me, are self-evident given the preface above. The
super-majority of the list is not offended by small attachments. The
effectiveness (in my case) for using the attachments garnered a 7-fold
increase in solicited responses. Therefore, until a mandate is agreed
upon, to serve my purpose and what I consider to be a purpose of the
internet and this list, I will continue to apply 'good' judgement when I
attach.

That's my two cents (or lack of any sense).
Thanks for those of you who have given this subject attention.

Terry Vidal
University Museum
University of Northern Iowa.

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