At 10:25 AM 6/20/2003 -0500, gep2(_at_)terabites(_dot_)com wrote:
>The users want html formatted mail.
Most of them have no idea what that means.
The main reason so many users end up sending HTML-burdened E-mail is because
they don't know any better, and because it is the default.
Most HTML-burdened E-mail generated by the VAST majority of users never
use any
of the formatting (or other such) features at all. For all of those
messages,
the HTML-burdening only just makes the messages bigger without conveoying ANY
more information.
#1: Majority of users and MUAs send HTML email by default
#2: Changing those settings can take months and years
#3: Spammers switching to plain ASCII will take days.
#4: It is easier and faster to have content filters do everything that MUAs
can, than forcing users to stop using HTML email. Base64 encoding, HTML
encoding, url encoded URLS, etc. can all be put into content filters.
#5: There is no consent architecture in place for users to make such choices.
#6: We are ignoring the problem. Blocking HTML,base64,attachements, etc.
still does not fix the fundamental problem of SMTP able to accept email
from forged senders.
Another example would be challenge response for spam blocking. One of the
problem with challenge/response is the burden is puts on the sender to have
to reply to every email. That's why Eric Dean is working on a CRI protocol
that can do the verification automatically. An automatic CRI protocol that
is transparent to the end users is something that solves the forged sender
problem, while blocking HTML does not.
Yakov
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Yakov Shafranovich / <research(_at_)solidmatrix(_dot_)com>
SolidMatrix Research, a division of SolidMatrix Technologies, Inc.
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"One who watches the wind will never sow, and one who keeps his eyes on
the clouds will never reap" (Ecclesiastes 11:4)
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