This is not a new problem, it has been discussed in the past. The vanagon
list is running on an ancient version of listserv software, circa 1999.
Here is a quote from an email from Jim Arnott, the site administrator a few
years ago discussing what might be involved in upgrading the software:

Listserv Classic license - $2,525 - $16,900
New server - (guessing) $1000-$1250
New OS - Linux - the time to configure. Windows - Windows Server 2016
Essentials - $500

So… A minimum of $5k when all is said and done. Plus someone with the
knowledge & time to set it all up. (That ain’t me. I have neither.)

On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 10:08 AM Dan N <dn92610@gmail.com> wrote:

> here is the archived message from Dennis - June 2919 to April 2021
>
>
> http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?S2=vanagon&L=vanagon&q=&s=&f=hotmail.com&a=June+2019&b=April+2021
>
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 10:00 AM John Thiessen <john.thiessen@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > And here is an example of what it looks like in the archives:
> >
> http://gerry.vanagon.com/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind2104d&L=vanagon&F=&S=&P=4998
> >
> > On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 at 12:58, John Thiessen <john.thiessen@gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > > That's correct. All modern (current) email clients decode them on the
> > > fly and you never even know it.
> > >
> > > This issue exists because the server that archives the emails cannot
> > > decode Base64. This means you will never be able to search/ read the
> > > emails encoded with Base64 (such as Dennis' .. a real shame).
> > > Additionally, when the server accumulates a handful of emails and then
> > > issues them in digest mode, you will not be able to read those Base64
> > > emails (unless you manually decode each one of them)
> > >
> > > On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 at 12:49, Roy Nicholl <RNicholl@nbnet.nb.ca>
> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I just had a look at the raw version of several of Dennis' posts (in
> > elm, pine and Apple Mail) and all the ones I examined are base64 encoded
> > which is pretty standard.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > John Thiessen wrote on 2021.04.27 13:33:
> > > >
> > > > So we are getting somewhere ..  There was no problem in the past.
> > > > There now is a problem; certainly for some months now.
> > > >
> > > > The issue may be with a setting in Dennis' Hotmail account, OR, it
> > > > could be a setting in the email client that Dennis uses to send
> > > > emails.
> > > >
> > > > Note that there are other members where from time to time their
> emails
> > > > are also unreadable.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 at 12:16, Dan N <dn92610@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > something must have happened on the List server related to Dennis'
> > email address recently...
> > > >
> > > > here are one from him long ago (April/2017) and one from another
> > person, both using Hotmail.com
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> >
>