Re: [epub] Email: HTML vs. Text?...

["* Rev. G. M. Pace" <wicce@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 03:26 PM 7/24/00 -0500, Brian Alt wrote:
>That's fine. Which is why any email publisher who might want you as part 
>of his or her audience would offer you the option of text.

Right.  I'm not arguing that.  =)  Actually, I'm not arguing anything.  It 
just seemed like everyone here was offering their opinion on whether they 
preferred text or html, and so I threw in MY opinion.  =)

>All technologies (especially new ones) can be used maliciously.  The 
>question, however, seems to be one of trust, not technology.  If you trust 
>the source sending you HTML email, whether it's a
>large corporation or a do-it-yourself publisher, the problem of receiving 
>viruses in HTML email goes away.

Actually, though, if you get more than a handful of emails at a time, like 
I do, then often you don't LOOK at who they are from, you use the little 
down arrow on the toolbar that allows you to go from one email to the next, 
and read them all in order.  When I read through all my email this way, it 
saves a lot of time.  But if I open an email that is in html, I immediately 
go to the next email and then go and delete it when I'm done.  So I'm not 
even seeing who it's from.  So if, say, you sent me an email in html, I'd 
never see it.

I've been on a lot of discussion lists where people posted to the list in 
html format and they ALWAYS get chewed out.  SO I know a lot of people hate it.

>If, on the other hand, you don't trust a publisher, it doesn't really 
>matter if his or her publication is HTML or text. Without trust, the 
>relationship is pointless. A publisher could
>send you the greatest content in the world... or viruses. It wouldn't matter.

As stated above, trust has nothing to do with it, I'm not even seeing who 
they are from.  Of course, one can always say, if a publisher or any sender 
is inconsiderate enough to automatically presume they should send in html 
without offering the option of text/html, then they don't warrant my trust 
anyway.  *shrug*  A lot of junk mail comes in html, too.

>Disabling a technology because it has the potential for abuse is not a 
>good idea. We might as well get rid of these PCs then, right? :) I'm not 
>going to boycott either.

I'm not disabling anything.  I just ignore them physically.  LOL  As 
someone stated in an earlier email, however, many people (as with all AOL 
users) have to actually go and ENABLE something in order to read html mail, 
which is more work and in my experience most AOL users aren't that computer 
literate to figure out how to enable that.

>I've had a fair share of viruses, trojans, and other sorts of nasties. 
>Mostly I've learned to not open email or attachments from an unrecognized 
>source.

I do not open ANY email attachments from an unrecognized source.  If I 
never opened any email from unrecognized sources, I'd lose out on a lot of 
fan mail and viewer requests from my site.

>Tell me this: How is HTML in email any more dangerous than HTML on the Web?

Because email is unsolicited much of the time.  If you go to a web page, 
you are obviously going there of your own free will.  Plus with email the 
material is downloaded onto your hard drive, with the web it's on the 
server and you're simply viewing it.  I don't download from web pages.

My boyfriend said for me to add that from a virus point of view, email is 
active and web is passive.

>You're generalizing here based on how you reacted to the 
>experience.  Again, I've had my fair share of burning, but I still read 
>and appreciate HTML email newsletters from trusted sources, such as 
>ClickZ, internet.com, DirtSmart.com, and others.

You're right, I was generalizing.  Sorry bout that!

>What about the risk of not offering a rich text version of your 
>publication, when your competition might be offering the more interactive 
>experience that HTML makes possible? ;-)

I know you don't read tarot and don't get tarot newsletters, but I do 
receive all my "competition" newsletters and every single one without FAIL 
is in text.  Apparently, at least within the tarot community, the general 
concensus IS to operate in text.  At this stage of the game I would 
probably alienate people by doing html.  I'll make you all a deal, 
though.  A bet, if you will.  I am going to put a POLL on my front page, 
and one in my next newsletter, asking my members which they would prefer to 
receive.... option A, text only, option B, html only, option C, both types 
available.  I'll be as interested as the next person in knowing what they 
will say!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rev. Gina M. Pace			Wicce's Tarot Collection		www.wicce.com
KEYWORD: Wicce			email: wicce@wicce.com	
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