html mail! why?
 

Can anyone give me a good reason for mail content to be in html. I am that p'ed with it that I now automatically dump any mail in html as it is bound to be spam.

Because with the advent of broadband (and thus no download time penalty) HTML allows wonderfully pretty formatting and layout, perfect for companies to sell you something. Personally I'm happy with plain text.


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It is as if they assume you are going to use an html mail tool. 9 out 10 times I access my mail from a ssh login onto my mail server.

If companies are that ignorant that the bombard me with unreadable mail then it is no wonder I have up'd the scoring of html in my spamassassin to mark it as spam and bye bye

HTML email is required for B2B and B2C commerce stuff to work.. we use it all the time as the majority of people use HTML capable email software.. we found that response rates were almost zero with plaintext emails and around 6-11 % with HTML.

so that's why :) i appreciate it can be annoying when using something like mutt or pine

Tim, you're increasingly sounding like one of Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen - "In my day we only had plain text email. If 7-bit ascii was good enough for us, it's good enough for today's young whippersnappers' :D

I really don't have a problem with HTML email. Pretty much all modern email software can display HTML and it can be useful to be able to format text, rather than stick to plain 1960's 7-bit ascii.

Having said that, I rarely use it myself and read my personal email from work using Pine over SSH. Pretty much all HTML email (except spam) uses multi-part MIME to send both HTML and plain text and Pine just ignores the HTML part.

Oi that is a terrible insult to give a Lancastrian.

HTML is just a pain in mail. I have also noted a tendancy to send spam mail as base64 encoded images.

As for Gnan remarks about using it for B2B etc I could understand if it was properly formatted XML but not HTML, However, I would personally use SOAP and web services for exchanging B2B messages and if possible a proper message queue handler to ensure end to end. Using mail would have to be the last resort

But I thout he did live in't shoebox in't middle o' road..... :lol:

It's just a modern communication tool.

Besides, if people didn't use it then they wouldn't use as much bandwidth. Which means I couldn't sell them more.. Be gone with you and your old fashioned ideas, I have a mortgage to pay :lol:

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Digressing from my original moan. But you don't want to sell to joe public anyway, they have champagne tastes and shandy budgets so sell to business.

Honestly, business needs a kick up the backside. If only we could drag them screaming and kicking into the 20th century. (I know we are in the 21st now, but many still need to adopt last centuries technologies and practices) They would get to apprieciate the benifit of using marketplaces, consolodation of procurement etc. real time communication with suppliers, customers.

One of my projects save hundreds of thousands of pounds by enabling video conferencing accross IP between our construction sites in China and the UK office. Design engineers and management were able to see problems. A few years ago it would be a sketch that was faxed back, then with digital cameras we could email an image. Now they get to not only have traditional VC, but can add other media, no longer need as many business class site visits etc.

All of which means big, reliable comms for the like of you Mr J. Cost savings for the business and more work for the consulting and support parts of the IT industry. But this really will only happen when IT directors get proper Board membership and not just a title.

There is usaly an option in most email clients to only read the plain text version of the email. I know Outlook has the option (Tools, Email Options).

When you send an email in HTML format usaly the client will also create a Plain Text version with much the same content and include it within the same message. Now not all messages have this counterpart especialy marketing ones, but it usaly will have a link to a webpage that will show the same message.

I'm a managed services & VPN/WAN specialist. We see more & more MPLS VPN's with broadband access going in allowing VC and voice. It just saves so much money...

Problem is that IT is an overhad, and while somebody may have the title of IT "Director", the CFO/FD still has the purse strings. That's why I make sure my people have access to the FD on any project, you need their comittment or it ain't going anywhere.

Most Companies know they need bigger IT budgets but are scared of spending here, to save more there... Fact of life.

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