For many years, the maximum size of emails distributed over this mailing list has been set at 200 kB (kilobytes), including the text of the email and any attachments. COGs new ISP, Vodien, advises that ‘Attachments are encoded before delivery,
the actual transmitted size of the file/s are about 25-40% larger. The attachment size limit is determined after encoding.’ This means, in practice, that the maximum size for an email sent by subscriber to the list has been in the range 120-150 kB.
COG’s 2019 member survey elicited a number of comments from respondents arguing strongly in favour of increasing the size limit for emails sent to list. It is noted that many modern email programs, including the popular Microsoft Outlook,
have a built-in option not to automatically download attachments. This provision is included as a way of helping users to manage the amount of data they download. The 200 kB limit was introduced at a time when subscribers had far smaller download limits for
their desktop computers and mobile devices than most have nowadays.
At its July 2020 meeting, COG's Committee resolved to increase the maximum size of emails distributed on the CanberraBirds list to 2 MB (megabytes). As before, this size limit includes the text of the email and any attachments. In practical
terms, considering the technicalities of the encoding of emails, it is suggested that attachments be limited in size to around 1.5 MB. Emails that, after encoding, exceed the 2 MB limit will be automatically discarded, and not delivered.
I am conscious that, although this increase will be welcome by the majority of list subscribers, it will not be welcomed by all. Please bear in mind the option of uploading large files to web storage sources (available free to most of us)
and simply providing links in your emails to these large, high resolution files. The option also exists to continue the current practice of resizing large files so as to have email attachments as small as practical.
Best wishes – David
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David McDonald
Canberra Ornithologists Group email lists manager
1004 Norton Road, Wamboin, NSW 2620, Australia
Tel: (02) 6238 3706 | Mobile: 0416 231 890
E-mail:
