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10.4: Use Safari to create rich (HTML) messages in Mail
Authored by: chyna4xena on Jul 31, '06 06:12:17PM
The spam issue is completely irrelevant to HTML e-mail. Those people who use "is it HTML?" as their spam filter will be subjecting themselves to an insane level of false positives and false negatives. There are many tools out there that actually determine whether e-mail in any format is spam or not - use one of them instead, since they actually do the job properly.

The notion that e-mail is ONLY to be used for short, plain messages is ridiculous - why on Earth wouldn't people try and use it for other things? I shudder to think what the web would be like if someone had instituted a "rule" that HTML 1.0 was it and that there'd never be any improvement! Thank goodness we weren't short-sighted when it came to HTML and HTTP, as some here want us to be about SMTP.

People can scream all they want that plain text is more effective at communication, that is just rubbish. I sent my friend's young daughter an HTML e-mail that played an mp3 of my office co-workers and I singing "Happy Birthday" to her automatically when it loaded. She loved it! Much better than a plain text - "Hi, my colleagues and I are singing Happy Birthday to you right now."

Was that "HOT DESIGN SKILLZ" ? No, it was the best way to communicate in that situation. Why is it so difficult for some to appreciate that plain text is NOT always the best way to communicate?

You can keep your plain-text-only e-mails (and your Lynx, and your monochrome screens, and your silent films, and your dot-matrix printers, and your Windows 3.1) because the rest of us have refused to wear blinkers, and discovered other great ways to communicate. If you don't want to use these new ways, that's fine, just don't go around telling us that we're "wrong" for using them ourselves.

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10.4: Use Safari to create rich (HTML) messages in Mail
Authored by: FenrisUlf on Aug 01, '06 01:00:46AM

I'd tend to agree. Though I staunchly send only plaintext out (even converting HTML to plaintext if I reply), I can't imagine why there's so much fuss with people using HTML messages. Granted, they can be annoying to us text-only folks, but other than that (and the inability to blanket HTML mail as spam), there's really no harm... at least not to me. But I'm still oldschool about how I format and send out my email... because I don't want it encumbered by weird additions that might make at least some of the recipients of my mail irritated. :)

I'd prefer plaintext, to be sure, but I'm not opposed to someone sending me an HTML message. (Thank goodness for modern clients, eh?)

(though all the people who use Outlook Express as their newsreader sure do make a mess of Usenet....)

I'd much rather watch the flamewar between VI and EMACs. ;)

---
Who are you that walk across the graves of giants at this late hour?



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10.4: Use Safari to create rich (HTML) messages in Mail
Authored by: chyna4xena on Aug 01, '06 04:40:47PM

I must have been exasperated; that last paragraph of mine was a bit full-on. I meant to make it clear that I use plain text a lot, too - it frequently is the best format for a particular piece of communcation. I was attempting only to decry the notion that it should be the only format considered, and that HTML can never be used. My apologies for getting so heated.



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