[TriLUG] HTML e-mail (was Rant: Please trim responses)

[Tanner Lovelace]

On Sat, 2002-03-23 at 23:33, Matt Matthews wrote:

> I got the impression that you were using Evolution from part of this
> discussion. It renders HTML just fine, AFAICT, so why would you refuse to
> correspond with him if he uses HTML? Are you honestly saying that you are
> using a tool that allows you to read his email just fine but because he uses
> HTML you refuse to do so?

You've all missed the real point here.  Yes, there are many resources
that are getting bigger all the time: disk space, computer speed.
However, bandwidth is not growing at nearly the same rate.  Most
people still use 56k modems to do all their internet stuff.
HTML e-mail increases e-mail size by a factor of 3 most of the time.
Have you ever wondered why it take so long to download a long
html e-mail.  That's why.  By using text e-mail you save that
much bandwidth that could be used for better things.  In addition,
while disk space may be cheap.  It's not the disk space of the person
who's sending the e-mail that gets eaten up.  It's the disk
space of the person who receives it. 

Yes, I use evolution.  Yes, it renders html e-mail.  Do you
realize how long it takes to render html e-mail compared to
text.  I've waited up to 10 seconds for some e-mails to render
(and this on my dual processor machine with my mailserver
on the local lan!).  HTML e-mail is a pain, and yes, I will
not generally correspond with someone that choses to send
my html e-mail when they could just as well send me text.

I told Rob to show me the code because he obviously thinks
there should be a better way of doing things.  Since I am 
happy with the state of things right now, I suggested he
go do it himself (and, if he wants, find a community of
people who agree with him to help him).  If he does it
himself, or convinces someone else to do it for him, more
power to him.  Just don't try to force me to use the same
system, thank you.

Tanner
-- 
Tanner Lovelace | lovelace at wayfarer.org | http://wtl.wayfarer.org/
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