If I can add to Onno's comments: HTML emails also pose some other "unexpected" problems, for instance:
1. At my work place (and many others) we have to "authenticate" (enter in a username and password) each time we access the internet...so when someone sends us an html email we have to enter in our username and password EACH TIME. Awful. Even if you send an attachment, beware: 1. Someone I work with uses a "header" on his email (the logo of the journal he is editor of). When I receive his emails, the logo is repeated over and over and over all over the area where the text is, because my message reader (Outlook) can't read his properly. Therefore I can't read his email as his text is obscured by the (unnecessary) logo pattern. 2. My husband is an engineer at a mining operation which employs over 1,000 people. At his site, they are not allowed to receive emails with attachments from those outside the company. If you send him an email with an attachment, it sits in "quarantine" somewhere in the IT department until they determine it is "safe". So any attachment (including VCF files) means that he can't read the email for a few days. The best rule--and this is from someone who works in marketing and spends most of her day making things look "corporate"--is forget html. Forget attachments if you can. Concentrate on the words in the message--that is what people are going to read anyway. Regards, Nathalie On 8/9/03 1:50 PM, "Onno Benschop" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Mon, 2003-09-08 at 09:45, Jon Hunter wrote: >> I noticed on Michael Campbell's email his photo (including dogs) >> located in the top right corner of the header. >> Can anyone tell me how this is set-up as I have the request made but >> have been unable to reproduce it. > > Those of you familiar with my distaste for HTML email will find it no > surprise that I would say and suggest the following: > > "It is a good thing that you do not know how to do this, because > it is *bad*." > > However, if this is the first time you've ever heard any comment about > HTML email, let me supply you with an actual explanation. > > There is nothing inherently bad about HTML email per se, but the problem > is that once you start with it, all manner of other things start to > happen. > > Firstly, HTML allows you to link to external objects, which then allow a > spammer to track which emails were actually viewed and when. > > Then, because you're encoding all kinds of other stuff inside a HTML > page, a simple message can take up five or more times the space an > equivalent text-only message takes. > > Mail programmes sometimes use their own method of displaying HTML - > Eudora for example - which is not always the same as a web-browser would > display it. > > HTML allows for JavaScript, so if a sender is allowed to send HTML > email, they need to also allow for JavaScript, which opens up a whole > can of worms in terms of malicious behaviour. > > On a more esoteric path, if you allow active content in an email > message, you open yourself up to other active content which can then > facilitate email virus propagation. > > The main reason stated for sending HTML email is "But I want to make my > email look pretty/corporate/formatted/designed." - Having just read the > preceding paragraphs, you can understand that this does not actually > succeed, because HTML is not meant - nor was it ever - to actually > accomplish this. > > So, how do you then achieve the stated reasons? > > Send an attachment. > > Let me say that again. > > If you want to send pretty email, send an attachment. > > Of course if you want to be bandwidth friendly - given that recipients > pay for receiving email - more bytes = more dollars - you'd be an even > better email citizen if you sent attachments only if requested by the > recipient and sent URLs to the information in *all* other cases. > > But then, some people don't have access to a web-server to put content > on, so people can actually get the attachment via the web. (Although 99% > of Internet accounts in Australia do in fact come with more or less > web-space.) > > So, while not answering your question, I hope this helps, > > > > <Some astute WAMUGgers will notice that most of this message was posted > to the list by me on July 23rd> > > <Perhaps the Web-Site maintainer would like to incorporate this text > into the FAQ> > > Onno Benschop > > Connected via Optus B3 at S15:51'18" - E128:45'05" (Crossing Falls, Kununurra, > WA) -- Nathalie Collins Phone/Fax: (08) 9796 0509 Mobile: 043 989 1997 Post Office Box A176 Australind WA 6233
