HTML and RTF mail -- Not entirely user control

From: Kevin L. Anderson <kla_at_helios.augustana.edu>
Date: Thu Feb 3 12:44:02 2000

I, too, dislike HTML and RTF mail. I usually read all of
my e-mail lists in digest form (which I am waiting to have
activated for this list...), which means HTML letters cannot
easily be deleted (a small price to pay). Most lists I am on
filter those out at the server end. At the same time, any time
you get a new user, you usually have to be patient and tell them
how to turn off that feature if they are Netscape or IE user.

But that isn't the only issue....

More serious, however, is that user may not be in full control
over the turning off of that feature. The ISP and/or the
organzation you work for may have control over the form that
mail goes out onto the Internet. A good instance is the
college I work for, and others that depend upon Microsoft
Exchange Servers (regardless of the client end). Normally in
X.400 protocol, when mail does go out the SMTP pipeline (such as
to this list) the mail still goes out in HTML. My computer center
apparently doesn't know how to turn that off (or will not do it),
although I've asked them many times. They, like Microsoft, are
counting on the users at the other end being individuals using
either a browser interface or an Exchange-compatible client,
both which will know how to deal with non-text files.

So it becomes an institutional problem, out of control of the
user. I get around it because I also have access to a Unix box,
which is what I use for all e-mail list interactions. Expect this
type of problem to happen more and more into the future
as more users come online with non-Text based e-mail clients.
Me and you folks will be unfortunately the exception.

As a sidebar, I can take the "reply to" feature either way -- as
a digest user for all my e-mail lists, I always have to cut-and-
paste my address and subject lines (or retype them), as a reply
would go only to the list (and never to the user), plus the subject
line would be all wrong (Re: Digest 1002...; not to forget that I
will have Mbytes of reply text to edit each time) My recommendation
would be to follow whatever the current RFC standard is -- after all, the
Internet functions only because people have adopted protocols.

My two cents worth...
Regards, Kevin Anderson
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Kevin L. Anderson Ph.D., Geography Department, Augustana College
  Rock Island, Illinois 61201-2296, USA phone: (309) 794-7325
e-mail: kla_at_helios.augustana.edu -or- gganderson_at_augustana.edu
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
    Opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent
           the administration of Augustana College.
Received on Thu Feb 03 2000 - 12:44:02 GMT