[clue-talk] HTML Mail -- Was: The War On...?

[Jed S. Baer]

On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 15:40:41 -0700
Timothy Klein wrote:

> > OK, as much as I hate HTML formatted mail, no I won't really 
> > deliberately
> > try to mess with it. But I'd like to. Mwahahahahahhaa!
> 
> This makes me wonder.  I'm not a big fan of HTML either, because I used 
> to use mutt, where it is very annoying.   I like the option of using a 
> plain text reader, even though I don't anymore, and HTML gives that 
> problems.  Sending text and HMTL is better than just HTML, but just 
> wastes bandwidth.

Very few people, in my experience, worry about bandwidth at all. My
introduction to the "online" world was over a 1200 baud modem. I spent
time on BBS's, with all that wild stuff like echo conferences, and tools
such as SLMR (Silly Little Mail Reader), which would let you flag multiple
things to download, then zip them and download them, for offline
reading/replying, and then zip and upload your offline replies and new
posts. And I remember when the basic wide-are network consisted of a
leased line from Ma Bell, if you wanted 9600 baud, and you used a mux to
get 8 terminals hooked to the thing (if you needed it for terminals, that
is).

I have a V90 modem, but the phone line isn't good enough for 56K. I
typically get about 28.8, so I still notice bandwidth issues quite a bit.

> But my question:  how much chance do you think we have of winning this 
> one?

Basically ... none.

> Sure, it is easy to enforce plain-text on a list like this one, 
> with such and odd-ball collection of netiquet savy hackers.

You think so, eh? :)

> But it is hard outside that audience.  I try and get my young, 
> tech-savvy (but not really hackerish) cousins to quit sending me HTML 
> mail, and they think I am a dinosaur.  They have actually told me that 
> that "this ain't the 80s anymore" (I'm the same age as them, dammit!).  
> My Mother doest' understand the issue at all, but she knows that her 
> email client supports colors and fonts, so why the hell can't she use 
> them?  My cousin includes a vcard, and two JPGS of his daughter on 
> every email he sends from work (!).

Well, that's especially prevelant among non-technical people. With good
reason, I often greet the news of "I finally got online" with mixed
enthusiasm, because it means I'll have to try to educate another person
about not forwarding every joke and funny picture they get to me. In one
case, I finally ">" quoted the whole raw e-mail message, and replied with
that, so that the friend's MUA wouldn't hide the gory details which I
explained. That was over 1/2 a meg, most of it in piles and piles of
"forward to all my friends" envelopes, which nobody in the string of about
10 forwards had thought to remove. That person simply stopped sending me
any e-mail at all, rather than exercise judgement.

> Some days, I start to wonder if I should just give in.

Mostly, I try to ignore it, because it seems a losing battle. Just like
top-posting, excessive quoting, failure to trim list-wrapping, and all of
the other things we could complain about, I mention them on occassion,
which usually results in getting flamed.

> Is this a losing battle, a la the 'correct' usage of the term "hacker?"

Yup. Sigh.

jed
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