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Re: [Sheflug] HTML mail (was Re: Linux)
On Fri, 2002-09-20 at 09:40, Chris J wrote:
> Its not just the Linux world. You'll see this policy on other mailing lists
> - certainly two other lists I'm on (decidedly non-techie - one is a support
> group, the other a social group, both contain large numbers of non-techs),
> HTML mail is frowned upon.
A few reasons not to use HTML email:
1) Waste of bandwidth. Sure, one may be small, but if every mail has
duplicate HTML and Text versions (how many people who use HTML mail
actually insert things other than plain text??) then that adds up very
fast
2) Less chance of malicious code. Image bugs, javascript, other nasties,
can't get in if the mail client doesn't interpret as HTML
3) Bloat. For some reason people see MS Office as bloatware, but not so
an email client with built in browser technology.
So many HTML emails are duplicates of the text version with <HTML> tags
round it, because there is _no_ special formatting or features which
would need HTML. If you are trying to look after a mailing list on a
server with bandwidth limitations, and every man and his dog is sending
200 bytes of text in a 70k email, you can see how the ratio of actual
traffic to useful information is really quite obscene.
This is also related to the various 'HOWTO send email properly' threads
that go on on various lists.
TBH this is all related to consumer reaction. They so desperately _want_
to use HTML email, but they didn't until the marketing powers that be
told them that they did. It's just like Picture Messaging, GPRS, etc.
Too concerned with the 'can', not concerned enough about the 'why'.
--
Craig Andrews
craig@fishbot.org.uk
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