[Astlinux-users] why HTML mails suck

[Carla S. <ca...@br...>]

I don't want to start a stupid flamewar, so I'm going to list a few reasons 
why HTML mails suck, especially for mailing lists, then go away:

1. HTML adds nothing useful to the content, just lard
2. It's primarily a spam and malware vector. Not so much as it used to be, but 
it's still enough of a problem that for most of my customers I run Mimedefang 
and other tools to strip tags and attachments. All kinds of fun things lurk 
inside HTML spams, like Web bugs and download links to more malware. It's so 
much fun wasting billable hours on junk like that
3. Microsoft HTML is the worst offender- it rarely renders correctly on 
non-Microsoft mail clients, so all you see are masses of tags with the 
message buried somewhere deep inside
4. It sucks to read in text mail clients
5. It doesn't render in Web archives, so again all you see are masses of tags 
surrounding the actual messages
6. Text is universal and can be read by anyone anywhere

That's why I don't like HTML email, and usually bitbucket it. Obviously I'm 
not the boss of anyone, and what people choose to use is up to them. 'Nuff 
said, and I shall now grumble quietly to myself. :)

-- 
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Carla Schroder
Linux geek and random computer tamer
check out my Linux Cookbook! 
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/linuxckbk/
best book for sysadmins and power users
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