[Ti] [OT] HTML/MIME emails

[Tarik Bilgin]

On Thursday, February 13, 2003, at 02:27  pm, Bill Reburn wrote:

> On 2/13/03 1:26 AM, "Tarik Bilgin" <tarik at opalblue.com> wrote:
>
>> Personally I abhor HTML emails

ok perhaps i made that statement rather rashly.

i'll reword it:

I abhor 99 percent of the HTML email messages I have ever received, so 
choose to miss out on the 1 percent that I really like (and there are 
some that I have liked).

>
> Why exactly do "60%" of users not like html mail?? (I think that 
> number is
> false too)
>
> Personally I LOVE getting the formatted Store Apple newletters - all 
> nice
> and templated like the website.

This is exactly the point I was making Bill, some of us love HTML 
(especially well formatted) emails. Others simply prefer to see email 
in a standard plain-text format (I like the flexibility to read my 
email in a shell program like PINE as I do a lot of UNIX work)

>
> I receive several others this way as well.. Very professional looking 
> and
> readability is very high! (definitely higher than a flat text based - 
> no
> format email (which requires no thought to pound out).
>
> Is it because most people are numpties and include nonsense html code 
> in
> messages that bogs down the readers system somewhere?

It's because:

* you can't guarantee that your HTML email will "look right and be 
readable" across all mail user agents (i receive many examples of this 
daily) since there is no standard for this. Microsoft has been the main 
driving force behind HTML email, and no independent body (like w3.org) 
has come up with a "standard", hence non MS  MUAs may not (believe me 
i've tested this today) display it the way it looks in your MS MUA.

*some users don't have the bandwidth to deal with images

*some users want  to be able to read email in a text only terminal 
window

*some users "block" images coming from HTML emails (I do) since by 
simply downloading a linked image from the internet your IP address is 
being "logged" for marketing purposes (my client makes use of these 
techniques -- widely known in e-marketing circles)

*some users don't want music to (Midi files) play if they are reading 
their email and someone has embedded music using the BGSOUND attribute 
of the body tag.

*you get the idea.
--
the point I am making is in the arena of "permission" based email 
marketing we need to respond to our customers wishes.

As always: "One man's annoying junk mailing is another man's really 
useful offer"
--
Tarik Bilgin
Opalblue
tarik at opalblue.com