Hope my other message hasn't ignited a holy-war--NOT what I was trying to
do. What I was trying to say is that some level of cooperation must be
reached.
Send plain-text for now AND upgrade for the future.
I think you will agree with me if you will at least read the last section of
my message.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Steve Dropkin" <steve@xxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> So why does my mail-reader have to handle HTML just because it's
> possible? I can read perfectly well -- in fact, better -- without
I also don't want to be entertained by someone's cute email animations (the
web is bad enough) -- especially via my slow dial-up which is my only choice
for now. As I said in my previous post, I have turned OFF my html
enhancements. Even when they were on, I didn't do more than basic ascii
email formatting (old VMS mail and unix pine user), BUT the reason older
email browsers should be upgraded is that:
1. As more and more people get html enhanced readers and LIKE all the
features, they will figure out that they hold the majority and just ignore
the requests for plain-text messages. They will see some wiz-bang html
"feature" that they can't live without and quickly forget that it looks like
trash on some people's screens. If they accept waiting an extra five minutes
to get their email, they will figure that we all will. (What? You think this
is a cynical view of the user? Try to talk a Windows IE or NS user into
using archie, gopher, ftp, and telnet for an afternoon. How long has it been
since you have been called an outdated fossil?)
2. At some time, users may not have a choice about the email format they
send if they use the default Microsoft Outlook. Yes, the people who brought
you mandatory Internet Explorer installation with Win98 might just decide to
"set" the next standard and evolve email for us. Bill knows best you know!
and in another message from Frank van Lindert <frank.van.lindert@xxxxxxxxx>:
>and many people, especially on older Unix-boxes, cannot read html mail
>at all - no matter what their provider gives them.
This would be especially true if you don't have admin rights on the box. The
danger is that the majority figures out that the non-html capable unix users
represent a fraction of a fraction of the total users and they figure since
*they* just spent $2k, they have the (ahem) *right*.
******* <The Part I Think Everyone Will Agree With>*******
>Why is the use of html forbidden in Usenet newsgroups? Good!
>Let's keep the same policy for mailing lists, please.
That's a point I tried to bring out in my other email. I looked at the
list's homepage and did NOT see anything forbidding html-enhanced messages.
(So if you want to use html, go ahead, it's not against the rules--filter
out the people who complain.) When I signed up, I read the guidelines--I
didn't even think about my Outlook puking out html encoded messages by
default. When someone complained on-list, I dug around in my settings and
found out--"Hey, I'm guilty too." So I switched it off. If the majority of
the group wants to make it a rule, we should request that it be added to the
sign up and probably get some instructions posted on how people can turn
html encoding off in all the different email packages. (Part of the
population may be willing but not know how.)
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