on 06/03/2004 12:38 AM, Paul Berkowitz at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >> FWIW, this subject comes up often on many lists. For some reason it seems to >> invoke very strong emotions. Some lists even go so far as to ban HTML >> messages. > > Noodles. Mailing lists that have a bunch of old diehards still using email > programs dating from 1773 that not only can't read HTML but can't even read > the "alternative" plain text which Entourage always includes with HTML are > one thing.
I think it has a lot less to do with diehards and a lot more to do with two other issues at hand. The mail lists in which they mandate plain text are usually heavy use lists, they get a lot of back and forth on one thread. After one reply, the quoting/indenting that goes in in HTML gets to be pretty confusing to me at least. After 5 or 6 people get to the message, it is for the most part, a mess. The second reason I think they mandate plain text is for archiving. I have had the less than pleasurable experience of writing a mailing list archive, parsing out the multipart parts can be tough, toss in HTML, it gets tougher, at least in those cases where the list serve or some other agent does not properly provide plain text. I am on a CSS mailing list, they do not allow HTML, for good reason IMHO, and I know that many of the users in fact love html, it is after all, what we are talking about. In these cases, it brings more mess to the list for general replying and archiving. Now, me on the other hand, I am a die hard :-) Granted, my client can handle it fine, I am still very much against HTML for anything other than two reasons, one of which you, Paul, taught me. First is sending code in emails that will break if it hard wraps, such as AppleScripts, this is a good reason for it, another good reason is in a one way conversation, where you know the person is not going to reply. I have a client who sends me HTML emails, by the time we are at message number 4, where it has passed back and forth to each of us two times, the message at that point is impossible for me to see who said what. I am sure there is a way to deal with this, and I am sure it means my client would have to learn how to properly send these HTML emails, to me, it just seems easier to use plain text in those cases. I used to be 100% against HTML emails, I now have at least one solid reason for it that Paul pointed out to me :-) -- ------------------------------------------------------------- Scott Haneda Tel: 415.898.2602 http://www.newgeo.com Fax: 313.557.5052 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Novato, CA U.S.A. -- To unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> archives: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.letterrip.com/> old-archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/entourage-talk%40lists.boingo.com/>
