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Hi Al,
Monday, June 14, 2004, 7:57:04 AM, you wrote:
AV> Yuki:
AV> I changed the subject line to coincide with the subject matter. Just
AV> curious: educate me a bit. What's wrong with receiving mail in HTML format
AV> besides the added byte-size of the message? I kinda like seeing responses in
AV> different colors; to me, HTML is preferred rather than plain text. Is it for
AV> security reasons? Is HTML more virus-threatening? Thanks.
Two reasons: 1) size (HTM puts a much bigger load on the system in
terms of transmission size) and 2) security, as you mentioned. Mail
clients, like OE and Outlook, that read HTML mail directly, are
sitting ducks. Many people, if not most, who understand the security
issues, refuse to use them, or set them to read in plain text format.
At the very least, they should be set to NOT download images or
anything Active X from the Net automatically.
The standard for e-mail is plain-text. Always has been. HTML mail
is a "cutesy" MS idea that is a security risk, and one that puts a
huge volume burden on the system. Take a look at the message from WM
that I responded to: It's TWENTY THOUSAND kb, and it's nothing more
than a rather short text message that was put up in HTML format. The
same message, in plain text, would be one-fourth to one-third that
size, maximum. It would probably be smaller, actually.
I don't really make too much of an issue about it. But . . . my
reader is set to view plain-text by default. If HTML is formatted
with that stupid vertical line down the entire left side denoting
quoted text, I won't see it, because I'm not about to switch back and
forth from plain-text viewing to HTML viewing. Then if new text is
inserted inside that line, in a different color, I don't see the
color either. So I cannot differentiate between new and quoted text.
It is possible to format HTML mail using standard cues for quoted
text that will be picked up by plain text readers. That should be
the way it's done, if you *have* to use HTML.
I have two issues here, really:
First, I don't care if people post in HTML, really. If they want to
clog the system with "cuteness", that's fine with me; I have huge
bandwidth here. But . . .
1) Plain text is the default for e-mail, and if your HTML is
formatted to use quoted text indicators than are NOT STANDARD (like a
vertical line down the entire left side of the text), a plain-text
viewer is not going to pick this up, and THAT I have a problem with.
It is not the HTML per se, but the way the HTML is formatted.
2) The lack of trimming, particularly if already squandering
bandwidth with HTML "cuteness", is almost unforgivable IMO. TRIM the
excess out of the message, and make it clear what is quoted, and what
is new.
I'm just going to skip over messages that are not clearly offering a
plain text view of quoted versus new text. I read a *tremendous*
number of e-mails daily. By far, by an overwhelming majority,
plain-text is the rule. And plain-text is what I'm setup for. I do
not have time to sort out quoted from new material in a message that
is ONE PERCENT OR LESS new material, and that new material is
embedded in an HTML message that shows the entire thing as new text
in a plain-text viewer. I do not have that much free time, sorry.
Yuki
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