My apologies if any of you think that this thread I started
is a big chunk of SPAM, but I think it's important and it
deals with fanfics in a metaphysical sense, and is very
related to how we as a list enjoy our fics.

Anyway, the primary reason I started this is because
there are a lot of people who send via pasted text directly
(probably following FAQ guidelines), but that there are
also people who send via attachments.

I personally prefer attachments for several technical,
practical reasons and several preferential reasons,
but I realize that there are also people who cannot
access attachments in any way.

I plan to send most of my finished work fics via
attachments because they are simply too big to
be sent via pasted text, with a URL stating where
the fics are archived for the benefit of those who
didn't receive it.

As for problems regarding attachments, I don't want to get into
extended debates on it because that would be too much SPAM,
but there are things which have to be considered and what I'm
trying to do is establish what the people on the list feel is the
most convenient method of receiving their fics.:

Failing that, at least I need to know how many people DON'T
want to receive fics as attachments. (since I'm pro-attachment)

AS>Attachments can be a problem if you choose a file format that cannot be
AS>properly read at the receiving end because the receiver doesn't have an
AS>application that can open your attached file (saved in Word but receiver
AS>has WordPerfect etc.). 

My apologies. I thought that everyone here believes
that fanfics should be sent via text format. I personally
hate fics sent in Word or Wordperfect or whatever
word processing format. I took it for granted that
everyone assumes text mode whenever they refer
to fanfics.

AS>For this reason it's probably best to post your story in the message
itself. 

This has several downfalls to it as well, although I think
it is more universal in that everyone is assured of getting
the text (only that the text will come in very bad form).

AS>If you are set on posting your story as an attachment, it might 
AS> be best to convert your Word Processor file to a basic
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AS>problems that may occur in the conversion. It's a tedious process, but your
AS>readers will appreciate the effort.

Tedious? Bah, converting to TXT format is the easiest thing
you can do. Why bother using DOS Edit to fix it up? You can
do everything in a decent Word processor, have great
wrapping complete with justification, and perfect margins
on each side. (assuming that you view using a DOS text viewer)

Do you want to see a sample? I'll post a snippet of my fanfic 
(via attachment, the formatting is lost when I post directly 
to e-mail by pasting) just to demonstrate.

The file is DC-S01.TXT

AS>I am currently using Eudora Lite on both my PC and my Mac and it seems to
          |
AS>that were larger than 25k by chopping it up into two emails and labelling
AS>them as 1 of 2 and 2 of 2. This seems to be a pretty common practice among
AS>story posters and with a little preparation before posting, should deliver
AS>your story installment to the FFML with no problems.

Yes, but if the person who receives it wants to archive it, it's
a big hassle. Furthermore, I personally hate reading fics using
my mail client (it just looks so dreadfully ugly) and the client
itself is very unstable (it can hang and ruin everything in your
mail box) so I prefer to avoid the client (and Windows for that matter) 
whenever possible.

Furthermore, I cannot post text larger than 10 KB or so, and
my current fic has almost reached 300 KB.

Furthermore, there are people who hate reading multiple
messages and people who hate having multiple messages
clogging their e-mail.

While I realize some people like to archive their messages
in the data file of their mail client, this is, I believe, bad
practice and is very risky; your mail client messes up once
and all of that data goes down the drain.

Many mail clients (like my own) also become more unstable
as the number of messages in them increase, so the tactic
of chopping the fics up aggravates this problem even more
for those concerned.

AS>One last tip would be to compress your attached file using a program like
AS>Winzip to cut down on the attached file size.

I think that if this is to be done, the file should be made a
self-extracting archive. You can't take the chance that
the person receive it doesn't <gasp!> have PKUNZIP.

However, I think that compressing the fic is VERY practical,
saves on time, and also doubles as an archiving aid for
the receiver.

Anyway, to sum this meaty message up, I'd like to ask
again how many people take offense at receiving fics
via attachments. If there are TOO many, I guess I'll
have to live with it.