Date:         Tue, 23 May 2000 15:15:09 -0400
Reply-To:     David Beierl <dbeierl@IBM.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Beierl <dbeierl@IBM.NET>
Subject:      Re: MIME Message! (non-vw related)
Comments: To: Jeff <jeff@ELECTROPONICS.COM>
Comments: cc: Brent Christensen <bpchristensen@mindspring.com>
In-Reply-To:  <1253019696-77848866@electroponics.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed

What he said!  HTML for email is an abomination unto the Lord.  It takes
(lots of) extra storage,  (lots of) extra bandwidth,  (lots of) extra
archiving, and enforces a lower limit on technology to access the
mail.  For those people who have only text-based mailers, it makes the mail
unintelligible.  For those who pay by the second, or by the byte, it steals
money straight out of their pockets.  For the rest of us it only makes the
whole Internet more expensive, so one way or another we all pay. The
benefits are trivial IMO compared to the costs.

It is *not* IMO the wave of the future, it is only the wave of greed, and
fluff over substance.  That uSoft has enforced its use in their new
products is utterly outrageous and indicates to me just how far from either
conscience or reality they are traveling.  I fully expect that a public
outcry (particularly by network and server administrators) will force them
to back down.  I strongly encourage such an outcry.  I strongly encourage
list administrators and writers of listserv software to return as
undeliverable any mailing list message not in plain text.

Not to mention Jeff's excellent points.

<rant permanently on in this context>
david


At 13:44 5/23/2000, Jeff wrote:
><rant>
>
>Aaaaagghhh!
>
>html is for the WEB!
>If you want auto-virus-cookie-ad-uglyass mail, then just accept it as
>progress.
>I however, believe that email should be TEXT ONLY.
>
>The marketing droids are trying to push for the html email so they can put ADS
>in and TRACK their mails.
>
></rant>

David Beierl - Providence, RI
  http://pws.prserv.net/synergy/Vanagon/
'84 Westy "Dutiful Passage"
'85 GL "Poor Relation"