Hello again,
I've been reading the posts on this subject (as I'm sure most have), and
they do seem to have a common couple of threads that I would like to give a
quick comment on.
As I've already said, I do prefer HTML myself but there is a difference
between HTML enabled and creating a web page to send to the list. HTML
enabled gives the ability to underline a word for example where, as some
people have mentioned, adding midi sounds is just retarded! Just saying
that an email is HTML doesn't mean that it was written using Macromedia
backstage and will be a 10 minute download, and that's what I compare to
people who have a half page signature on every post or people who endlessly
comment on posts without trimming off the irrelevent parts - most things
like that are just common sense. I may not trim a message if I feel that it
has important info in the body of the previous posts and sometimes I might
just forget, but I think gentle reminders work just fine. For any of those
that have done HTML coding, you'll know that the text behind an HTML page is
all that you're sending to the list. It's not the same as writing and
compiling a program, the email client that reads it does the putting
together and display; so unless there are graphics (which again, save the
pictures of the kids for off list) or sound (duh, does this really have to
even be mentioned?), the file is really no larger than a simple text file
(except for a few instructional tags which are simply text themselves).
My second thought would be toward the security risks. I use both Linux and
Win98 / Win2k, as I know others on this list do. When you're on the Linux
box, any malacious Javascript or VB program won't effect you - VB won't run
on Linux without Wine (which you would have to download and setup
specifically to run that VB program, and then, well...), and Netscape
crashes on most Java pages so c'mon! Seriously though, a virus written for
one OS, will not hurt another without being ported to that system. When
you're on the M$ systems, just keep a virus program running in the
background and follow simple hygene, don't open attachments unless you know
who / what sent them and why, etc....
I'm sorry for the long post, but I feel strongly about this and think it's
important enough to think about. I've noticed that there are just a hand
full of people who always seem to jump on a guy the first time he / she
sends a message using HTML but it seems that most people don't care that
much. I too, have about 350 messages come through by box (changelog,
cooker, newbie and expert lists) and that's not counting normal mail; it
took no more than a couple of minutes to download these when I was using a
regular modem (now dsl), and I always had the option of removing myself from
one or more of the lists if I thought it was too much.
Thanks to all for your patience,
Mike
