For me I could care less about the extra weight, band width is cheap.
The exception to this is when you have mailing lists with 20 quoted
messages string together the HTML can make that message VERY Fat
indeed. The issue with HTML is that it can contain nasty Javascript or
VBscript that can be hostile. It can redirect you to a hostile website
or execute the script local. Nasty stuff. HTML is a security issue
more than anything else. If you need fancy formatting which for
"business emails" is sometimes necessary use richtext. It is supported
(I believe) by *nix mailers and windows mailers alike. I know that Abi
word reads rich text files so worst case it needs to be opened as an
attachment. In general plain old text is more than acceptable for
mailing lists.
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR ***********
On 7/14/2000 at 11:26 PM Gary scribbled:
>On 14 Jul, John Glasscock wrote in part:
>
>> A correspondent made a plea, not an unreasonable one but one with
which
>> I may not entirely agree, that messages be posted in text only and
not
>> in HTML.
>
>> Personally I don't understand the reluctance to embrace HTML.
However,
>> I am prepared to be guided by the members of the list who may feel
>> strongly about this issue one way or the other. If you would like
to
>> send your comments to me over the next 5 days, I will summarize and
post
>> the results of this inquiry.
>
>I used to use HTML, but changed over time as I became aware of
>"net-etiquette" and the use of emoticrons i.e. :-) or :D, etc. One can
>*always* express SOME degree of inflection in plain text.
>
>The big problem that I have with HTML, it it's "weight." I frequently
>manage 400+ messages a day (on the low side), and some of these
puppies
>are 50 to 60K in size - *more* if quoting complete threads. If
everyone
>used HTML, bandwidth gets very high and it takes a *long* time to
>download. Also, many, many people outside the US pay for their time on
>their ISP (to include, but not limited to England, Germany and other
>European countries, Russia, Indonesia, Thiland and other points East),
>and this is puts quite a burden for a pretty postcard. Also, as
>mentioned, some mailers don't handle HTML well, and what they see is
>just a lot of code with their messages. I have found most e-groups
>support plain text fully (via its members) and do not use HTML. Some
>even ban them altogether. Just my 2cents :-)
>
>Regards,
>Gary
