> > Have you heard of Sturgeon's Law? > > Sturgeon was wrong... 90% of what he created may be crud, but > that's not true for what I create.
Everyone says that about their own work, and yet a simple examination of the world around you will confirm Sturgeon's grasp of the obvious. > > Email is a textual medium. > > Not any more... if that were true, Sprint, Verizon, and > everyone else wouldn't be jumping through hoops trying to > accommodate photos, video, graphics, and HTML email into > their capabilities and there wouldn't be so much HTML > generated by spammers. (Except for the poor people in > Ethiopia, who apparently can't afford to put graphics in > their offerings of $25,000,000.00 dollars if I'll let them > use my bank account. :o) > > We're a visual world now, not a textual world. Then why did you bother typing a response? In your brave new visual world, you should have recorded a video of yourself and uploaded it to Youtube. And yet, you didn't. I wonder why. There is a time and a place for everything. Email, with its emphasis on written communication, is able to achieve a signal-to-noise ratio that most HTML documents never do. Sprint, Verizon, etc are jumping through hoops in an attempt to make more money, and yet the most popular form of non-audio communication over phones is ... wait for it ... SMS. Not too many pictures in those SMS messages. Here in DC, you can't swing your arm without knocking a Blackberry out of some lobbyist's hand. How does HTML mail work on those? Not so good. Using the greed of telecoms and spammers as an example doesn't really help your case. > I have to disagree with you on that one, Dave. HTML (done > well and used appropriately) will always be more effective in > communications than text html... > > Why do you see HTML email as such a bad thing? Size of messages > only? We obviously have different definitions for "communication". I think you mean "marketing". These are not the same thing, or even close to the same thing. HTML mail is an attempt to control the mail reader's experience, to force me to see your message as you want it to be seen. And then, half the time, it doesn't work anyway, due to security restrictions or non-standard clients (PDAs, etc). In those cases, your message really looks like crap, believe me. If you want me to see something, just put a link in the message, and I'll decide whether it's worth my time to view it. Most mail clients automatically convert URLs to links, you know. Dave Watts, CTO, Fig Leaf Software http://www.figleaf.com/ Fig Leaf Software provides the highest caliber vendor-authorized instruction at our training centers in Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, or on-site at your location. Visit http://training.figleaf.com/ for more information! This email has been processed by SmoothZap - www.smoothwall.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJP Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:275506 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
