On 15 May 2002 at 12:11, Paul Russell wrote, in part:
...
> Some people use text-only email clients, either by choice or because they
> have no choice, some people pay for Internet access by the minute or the
> byte or both, and some mail servers have limited storage capacity. In my not
> so humble opinion, it is both arrogant and rude to send anything other than
> text/plain email, unless you are absolutely certain that doing so will not
> result in any inconvenience or needless cost for any of the recipients of
> the message.

Paul, and many techies and old timers (I'm both), and I disagree on this
one:

    I don't think there's anything rude or arrogant about sending
    "enhanced" e-mail.  Color, size, and good design can make a point
    better than plain text. It often doesn't, but it can.

Now if I subscribe my telephone's SMS address to LSTOWN-L, I'll get what I
deserve, but I have no right, IMHO, to insist subscribers of LSTOWN-L to
send short one-sentence messages!

I'm sorry if this is rude and arrogant, but plain text e-mail is like a
black and white television signal ... you can send it, but people are going
to pay more attention a color television signal.   Sending a plain text
version with the enhanced text is an acknowledgment that it may be read by
out-of-date technology.

Of course, anyone that sends e-mail with "enhanced" text should understand
that the recipient may not appreciate the enhanced text and may discard the
e-mail out of hand.

In case anyone still agrees with me, I'll add that "some mail servers have
limited storage capacity" is irrelevant.  The size of e-mail today,
compared with internet audio and video and cost of storage, is not large.

These arguments against "enhanced" text were valid a decade ago, but are
they worthy of our (professional) consideration today?   I'm all for using
the right technologies, but isn't the question more to developing and using
technologies that fit what is in use today?  Of course, my "thumb to the
wind" says, with exceptions such as ships at sea, general e-mail recipients
are relatively unaffected by speed issues of "enhanced" e-mail.

Sending MBytes of data and programs via e-mail is another issue (for me).

Hope this starts a good discussion.  ;-)        cheers, wayne

Oh yes, send HTML-only e-mail to my text-only address, and *I*'ll discard
it out of hand!  I won't think you're rude, but I won't see your message!
And yes, I did write this one in plain text because (1) I'm not at all
artistic, (2) it's generally preferred for this and many mailing lists, and
(3) "enhanced " text probably wouldn't enhance this message! ;-)


Wayne T. Smith                         Systems Group - UNET
[log in to unmask]                 University of Maine System