[Wikipedia-l] Re: html emails

[Chad Perrin]

On Mon, Apr 18, 2005 at 09:12:23PM +0200, Anthere wrote:
> 
> 
> Cormac Lawler a écrit:
> >On 4/18/05, Tony Sidaway <minorityreport at bluebottle.com> wrote:
> >
> >>Cormac Lawler said:
> >>
> >>>Hi - I need your help (whoever you are)
> >>>
> >>>I am trying to write a html email
> >>
> >>I'm sorry if this sounds unhelpful, but could I please ask you to
> >>*reconsider* any impulse you might feel to produce emails in html?  Text
> >>is much nicer.
> >>
> >
> >
> >Fair comment, but could i ask that that discussion take place on
> >quarto-l? Just to add, that it is not just *my* impulse to produce
> >this mail - I have simply volunteered to do it.
> >Cormac
> 
> yo. I think most of us would prefer it to be in html... for quite a 
> number of reason (such as links).
> 
> Ant

I'm not sure I agree with that estimation of the majority.  I think that
a vast majority would, in fact, probably not much care one way or
another, especially since most graphical email clients turn bare URLs
into links automatically, even in text-only emails.  Meanwhile, HTML
emails are almost undreadable for those of us whose primary email is
read in a text-only fashion.  I actually delete 90% of HTML email
without even checking to see whether it's content is of any relevance to
my life for a number of reasons, including security issues, annoyance
factor, and basic convenience.

Text email is universal.  HTML email alienates a great many people.  If
I wanted to see HTML, I'd use a browser or an HTML editor.

That's not to say that there isn't a place for HTML emails, but I would
strongly recommend that emails not be sent in HTML form unless you are
positive that everybody receiving the email will be positively receptive
to that format.  If you really want to present information in an HTML
formatted manner, but aren't sure if everyone receiving the email will
be accepting of HTML emails, you might think about simply creating a
webpage somewhere and linking to it from a text email.

I'd say "Maybe that's just me," but I know for a fact it's not.

--
Chad Perrin
[ CCD CopyWrite | http://ccd.apotheon.org ]