On Monday 12 February 2007 13:27, Kelson wrote: >Tom Allison wrote: >> Personally, I think HTML email should be outright discarded from the >> start. If you look at this arguement presented by the OP then it >> reinforces the idea that most ascii is ham and most html is spam. >> Therefore, reject delivery of all html based email. Or to be more >> succinct -- reject any MIME type of alternative content or html only >> content. That would remove probably 90% of the spam in one shot. > >Speaking from an ISP perspective: > >I hate to break it to you, but most end users want some sort of >formatted mail. The days of all email being ASCII-only are over, just >as the days of all websites being text-only are over.
With all due respect, that's 100% BS. MIME was invented to handle the non-ascii stuff, and does it very well except for M$, who couldn't follow a std rule with a loaded 44 magnum stuck in Bills ear. >Now, if you can come up with another markup language for formatting > email... > >* That satisfies end users' wants without being vulnerable to the > filter-evasion that HTML makes possible >* And you can get all the major email clients to render it >* And you can get all the major email clients to use it for formatted > composition instead of HTML (so end users can still make their text > blue and embed the latest cute image of kittens) >* And you can get commercial email campaign software to use it instead > of HTML (so organizations can include a company logo, or pictures of > the items that they're promoting in this week's newsletter) > >...*then* it'll be viable to discard HTML. There is, its the proper use of mimetypes. >Obviously, individuals and businesses handling their own mail can apply >stricter rules. But it's not something that can be done (yet) on a >large scale without disappointing a lot of people -- and not just the >spammers. -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above message by Gene Heskett are: Copyright 2007 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.