At 6:12 PM -0500 6/20/03, gep2(_at_)terabites(_dot_)com wrote:
I think you ought to let the READER be the judge of what the READER finds the
most readable... based on THEIR screen, THEIR vision, THEIR color preferences,
THEIR screen resolution, etc etc.
This battle was fought and lost with HTML web sites. Why do you
think you'll have any more luck winning it with email?
99.9% of the people sending email really don't care. Actually, I'd
put it stronger than that. When they make a document on the screen,
they want it to appear the same way on the printer. When the fax it
to someone, they want it to come out the same on the remote side.
When the paper mail it to someone, they want it the same way on the
other side. So not surprisingly they have this weird idea that the
recipient should see the email the way they composed it. That's how
it works in real life. That's how they want it to work on their
computer.
And don't talk to me about bits. Or dangerous content. Having your
computer on the internet is dangerous. But we think it's worthwhile.
You've made an apriori decision that HTML email isn't okay with you.
Great. Don't accept it. But don't try and massively complicate
everyone's life just because of your personal preference. You want
to make everyone's machine keep track of who they have ever
communicated with (On this machine? With this email program? With
this email address? With this ISP?). You want to change the default
behavior of 90% of the MUAs out there. You want to change the
behavior of every MTA out there that receives email (or else every
MUA has to add the code for tracking and bouncing). You want to
explain to the users how to change these settings, and have *them*
keep track of whether they have every sent mail to a particular user
at this particular email address and from this particular address
before, and then if not, have them change a setting that they don't
even understand.
And all to bring about a change that spammers can adapt to in less
than a week. Because you know what? They didn't need HTML to sell 2
million Iraqi most-wanted cards in two weeks. They didn't need HTML
to con people into flying to Nigeria and getting killed. And they
certainly don't need it to sell penis expanders.
Sure, it would be wonderful if there were some directory of what
formats people would accept, and if you could easily keep track of
whether you've sent mail to someone before, and they could easily
keep track of whether they've received mail from you before. We
abandoned those things when we abandoned X.400/X.500. This is good
old SMTP/MIME email. No directories. No concept of identity. No
concept of preferences. That is the environment we are working in.
And futhermore. It has nothing to do with spam. Please take the
topic somewhere appropriate.
Your proposal doesn't amaze me. I've seen lots of people make the
same complaint, myself included. What amazes me is that you think
it's simple. Email is an END-USER technology, it's not some buried
network protocol. NOTHING about it is simple.
--
Kee Hinckley
http://www.messagefire.com/ Anti-Spam Service for your POP Account
http://commons.somewhere.com/buzz/ Writings on Technology and Society
I'm not sure which upsets me more: that people are so unwilling to accept
responsibility for their own actions, or that they are so eager to regulate
everyone else's.
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