In either case, inputting or viewing the accented characters is impossible. Either one is an error. A reader with MIME-compatible software can see the proper characters, but others may find it entirely unintelligible. In the specific case of the mail exploder at Netcom, we observe two problems. The second problem with the netcom list is that the software at agate.berkeley.edu that forwards news articles from soc.culture.esperanto to the mailing list apparently strips out the high order bit of Latin-3 characters before sending.
Further investigation is required.
This includes providing ways to send mail that is properly tagged with respect to its content type and character set and allowing users to select alternative fonts or helper applications for the display of different charsets. Users should be aware of the rich diversity of the Internet world, and realize that not everyone is using the same sort of computers that they are. Just because you can post 8-bit Esperanto mail and see it on your screen looking the way you want it does not mean that other people are so lucky. This is, however, not a completely satisfactory solution for computers, and introduces unnecessary lexical ambiguity. Some parts of this message will be readable as plain text.