I apologize for sending three copies of this proposal. The digital signature on the first two was mangled for some reason. The signature on the copy I am responding to here should be clean.
On Saturday, March 15, 2025 11:44:21 AM Mountain Standard Time Soren Stoutner wrote:
> ----- BACKGROUND STARTS -----
>
> The text of the current mailing list code of conduct states:
>
> "Wrap your lines at 80 characters or less for ordinary discussion. Lines
> longer
than 80 characters are acceptable for computer-generated output
> (e.g., ls -l)."
> https://www.debian.org/MailingLists/
>
> There were historical reasons for requiring people to wrap outgoing emails
> relating to some older MUAs (Mail User Agents also known as email clients)
> not
having the ability to wrap the text of incoming emails and some older
> screens being limited to an 80 character width.
>
> These historical reasons no longer apply, as every MUA of which I am aware
> now
has the ability to wrap incoming lines.
>
> From a technical perspective, I believe having the sending MUA hard-wrap
> lines
at a particular column is the incorrect approach because there is no
> single line limit that works well on all receiving devices. Many cell phones
> have a display width of 40 columns or less, while modern desktops have a
> display width of far more than 80 columns. The only system that knows how
> big the viewport is where the mail will be displayed is the receiving MUA, so
> that is where decisions about line wrapping should be made.
>
> Having hard line wraps also causes problem with quoted text, where after
> multiple replies text will start to break in places that can make some of the
> quoted text appear to not be quoted. I am sure that everyone on the mailing
> lists has seen emails exhibiting that problem.
>
> There has is some discussion about this issue on debian-devel beginning at:
>
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2025/02/msg00302.html
>
> In that discussion, several people have suggested the use of format=flowed as
> a
solution. Format=flowed is an RFC that proposes a system for
> hard-wrapping text but including special codes that allow a receiving MUA to
> unwrap them and then rewrap them to the current viewport.
>
> https://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2646.txt
>
> Format=flowed never gained wide adoption by the majority of MUAs. Although I
> don't have any objections to anyone using it, I don't see it as an
> appropriate
requirement for communication on the mailing lists or a general
> solution to the problems of hard-wrapped text because it doesn't have wide
> enough
> implementation.
>
> ----- BACKGROUND ENDS -----
>
>
> ----- GENERAL RESOLUTION STARTS -----
>
> It is no longer required that emails sent to or received from official Debian
> infrastructure like the mailing lists or the BTS (Bug Tracking System) be
> wrapped at any particular column, although users and automated systems may
> choose to wrap emails at any column they prefer. Using format=flowed is not
> required for emails, but users and automated systems may do so if they like.
> The maintainers of the mailing list code of conduct shall update the text
> relating to the wrapping of emails at 80 characters to be the following:
>
> "There is no expectation that emails sent to the mailing lists are wrapped by
> the sender at a particular column, but those sending emails may wrap them if
> they choose."
>
> In the future, they may modify the above text of the code of conduct to meet
> changing circumstances as long as it does not violate the spirit of this
> General
Resolution.
>
> ----- GENERAL RESOLUTION ENDS -----
>
> --
> Soren Stoutner
> soren@debian.org
>
--
Soren Stoutner
soren@debian.org
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