[Dailydrool] question marks

[Alan Folsom]

The problem with question marks showing up in the postings is a result
of the mail, at some point, going through html formatting, or being encoded
in a character set that the digest doesn't understand.  When converted
back to plain text, that code isn't recognized, and is replaced with the
question mark.  

What is happening with the two spaces after a period is that the first space
is being encoded as a non-breaking space so you don't see one space at
the  end of a line, and the next space starting the next line.  That may not
make sense, but when the  digest sees this funky character, it just
produces a '?'.

I looked through several digests, and everyone with the question mark 
problem was either using AOL or Yahoo mail.  Are you composing through 
a browser?  That might generate the problem, but I'm not familiar with
them.  There is some pretty good information on browser or email client 
settings for plain text at  http://www.expita.com/nomime.html.

When you see a posting that says 'html attachment scrubbed' it means the 
email was sent as a multi-part mime message, rather than a simple plain 
text message.  For things like digests, you should try to send in as plain 
text as possible, no fancy formatting.

I. hope.   I.    don't.     see. any.   question.   marks.  In.  this.

Al