Nicolas Mailhot wrote:
Le jeudi 17 novembre 2005 à 11:51 -0600, Randomthots a écrit :
Q: Why is spam usually in html format?
A1. Because advertisers like flashy colours.
Because it's effective.
With flashy effects you
don't have to bother about meaningful messages and correct grammar.
Obviously you've never worked in retail sales.
A2. Because if spammers understood tech or ethics they wouldn't be
spamming in the first place.
Tech they understand real well. The ethics part I won't argue with too
strongly, although I would use the word "rude" or "obnoxious" instead.
A3. Because one can use 1×1 pixel images embedded in the html to detect
which message is actually read, and thus validate address lists
See? They understand tech.
A4. Because in HTML you can cloak links and display adresses different
from the ones you're actually linking to
A5. Because the HTML format is so convoluted you have many ways to hide
your spam content from spam filters, which can not integrate a full HTML
engine to detect what the user will actually see displayed. So it's a
filtering pass-through
Which squarely implicates the W3C as co-conspirators. After all, they
wrote the standard.
A6. because spammers don't care about standards or conventions, and
abuse them routinely
Precisely which standard or convention are they abusing by the use of
html-mail? Politeness?
Look. Spam is *not* a technological problem and treating it as such only
creates an escalating cold war. Spam is an *economic* problem, and the
cause can be summed up in two words: free email. It's the tragedy of the
commons updated to the 21st century.
The solution is a "fee-bate" system. Each email message should require a
micro-payment of, say, $0.25 -- basically postage. At the destination,
the recipient ISP would keep $0.05 and the rest goes to the addressee,
credited to their bill from their ISP. You're obviously a bright guy,
I'll leave it as an exercise to work out how this would change the
dynamics of the situation. Free Internet, anyone?
--
Rod
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