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Is HTML E-mail Still Evil?

Posted by Cliff on from the my-MUA-has-turned-into-a-browser dept.

Charlie Campbell asks: "My boss is pretty adamant about getting HTML newsletters to our clients; and, I'm pretty adamant about finding an alternative. I can understand the benefits in HTML mail from a designer's (mine) and marketing standpoint (that of my boss); yet, based on foreseeable issues with recipient software, mail filters, dial-up connections, etc. I feel that the risks outweigh the benefits. We've all heard this a million times... but is it now an outdated concern? Should I trust our client-base to be fully equipped for such a mailer? Should I worry about improper delivery marring our professional image? Is there anyone documenting the issue from a current-day perspective?"

9 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. Re:In my inbox, most html mail gets dumped by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's fine if you only communicate with your cadre of geeks. But there's this strange species called "girls". They're curvey and smell nice and tend to send HTML email.

  2. Re:Mutt users, unite! by ZosX · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah, you heard him! Mutt users unite! All three of you!

    --
    zosxavius photography
  3. Re:Mutt users, unite! by menkhaura · · Score: 2, Funny

    Four! I'm in the club, too!

    --
    Stupidity is an equal opportunity striker.
    Fellow slashdotter Bill Dog
  4. Re:Plain text -- it was good enough for Shakespear by UnrefinedLayman · · Score: 2, Funny
    If your message cannot be conveyed in plain text, then it's probably time to rethink the whole newsletter approach.
    That must be why newspapers have a single size and type font without images, why people go to movie theaters to read screenplays, and why we're all reading gopher://slashdot.org.
  5. Re:Is HTML E-mail Still Evil? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 2, Funny


    See Iraq.

    If we can not use HTML in your e-mail then The Terrorists Have Won!

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  6. Re:Multi-part by pyrrhonist · · Score: 3, Funny
    M U L T I P A R T

    Korben Dallas: Yeah, multipart, she knows it's a multipart. Leeloo Dallas. This is my wife.
    Leeloo: Mul-ti-part.
    Korben Dallas: We're newlyweds. Just met. You know how it is. We bumped into each other, sparks happen...
    Leeloo: Mul-ti-part.
    Korben Dallas: Yes, she knows it's a multipart. Anyway, we're in love.

    --
    Show me on the doll where his noodly appendage touched you.
  7. Re:"Evil" is bullshit by forkazoo · · Score: 3, Funny

    Okay, so the world doesn't revolve around us. But, HTML is still evil. Seriously. I work with some blind people. When email has images and stuff, the screen reader can't do anything with it. If all you want is bold face, and text formatting, then there probably isn't much point to bothering with HTML. People checking email on blackberries and cell phones and palm pilots is becoming a more popular phenomenon. Many companies turn off HTML mail for their users. (The one we use at the office turns it off by default, thank goodness.)

    If you want to use a 1x1 pixel web bug, then you are an ass hat. If you want to use javascript in email, you are an ass hat the size of a llama.

    And, when I was your age, I had to walk uphill to get email, all three ways.

  8. No. by DaoudaW · · Score: 2, Funny

    Google does html mail. Google doesn't do evil. Therefore html mail is not evil.

  9. yes, it is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    which is why you should send them all pdf files