[ale] HTML Mail (was: Re: ink expired?!?!?)

Michael B. Trausch fd0man at gmail.com
Fri Jan 12 22:26:27 EST 2007


On Fri, 2007-01-12 at 21:44 -0500, Sean Kilpatrick wrote:

> On Friday 12 January 2007 18:04, Michael B. Trausch wrote:
> | That having been said, I am using it because it is easier to use one
> | style for writing mail rather than two.  My school forums and e-mail
> | require the usage of HTML mail.
> 
> This is interesting.  What school?  Required to use html for e-mail?
> Certainly any e-mail client can easily handle plain text. Why the
> requirement?  If someone _needs_ to see italics, colored text, printer's
> quote marks, and other specialized formatting, certainly they can
> handle an attached file created by word processing software.


All of Apollo Group's schools, which include the University of Phoenix
and Western International University.  Specifically, they require that
you use Microsoft Windows, Microsoft Office, and the default
auto-configured settings that they put on your system.  Of course, I do
not do that, but I have been told by the teachers that they cannot stand
the ">" marks polluting plain-text e-mail messages, and that it is
against policy to use anything but HTML mail.  They didn't realize that
they meant HTML mail, but they said that "you have to use the settings
we give you and you cannot use *markup* _styles_ that /go/ with your
plain text messages").

And there are some people that attach their messages as files from
Microsoft Word.  I don't know if the rest of the class reads them, but I
do not; that is the most stupid thing I have ever seen anyone do with
mail messages.  If I am to read the message, then I expect it to be in
the mail message body.

(The entire school runs on proprietary software, by the way, and the
classrooms themselves are now only workable on Linux after their latest
"upgrade" because they provide an NNTP gateway; the web forums that they
want everyone using don't work for $)#@ and require Windows/Internet
Explorer.)


> I flag _all_ html email as SPAM.


I flag messages as junk based on a combination of things, including the
amount of hidden text in an HTML message, or graphics, or things like
that.  I hardly see any spam messages in my Inbox anymore, which is a
good thing.  :-)

Also, another reason that I use HTML mail is that the problems that used
to be around with HTML mail and OpenPGP stuff are gone, now that OpenPGP
clients use attachments by default instead of inline signing, secure
HTML mail is possible.  (Oh, but I can't use OpenPGP with my school;
they strip all unknown attachments.  In other words, they only allow
Microsoft Office attachments.  That's great.  Filter every attachment
out except the ones that can cause the most damage on Windows systems...
heh.  Logical, no?)

While I agree that HTML messages can be abused, well, so can virtually
any other technology.  Ten years ago, it was something that could be
blocked relentlessly and without regard, because there was something of
a set of standards on the Internet that people followed.  Today, it is a
losing battle; text/html messages are the default from many web mail
providers now, and many business (including IBM) use text/html for their
mail.  In another ten years, I think that text/plain messages will
probably be treated everywhere like mine were treated at the school.  I
think that's why people are moving to web forums and the like--which is
really annoying, since you lose just about every advantage of Internet
mail that ever existed.

    -- Mike

--
Michael B. Trausch
                    fd0man at gmail.com
Phone: (404) 592-5746
                          Jabber IM:
                    fd0man at gmail.com
              fd0man at livejournal.com
Demand Freedom!  Use open and free protocols, standards, and software!
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