don't like HTML email? here's your fix.

[David Gaskill]

On Wed, 29 Mar 2000 07:41:13 +0200 (CED), Alexander Sarras wrote:

>This is the, after a long time of trying it friendly, rather rude (TM)
>canned reply, I use:
>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> Since I have to pay for the time used to download email sent to me, I 
>> can't, won't or will ever read html-formated email. It wastes a lot of 
>> time and bandwidth, and doessn't conform to standards.

I realise that posting this will probably result in you, Steve and half the 
other members of the mailing list clubbing together to put out a contract 
on me but I feel like living dangerously today... 

Here in the UK, as in your country, local calls are charged. The exact 
charge depends upon the time of day but is never more than a few US 
cents a minute. There is in any case a minimum charge of approximately 
8 US cents. 

On my 56 K modem the difference in cost to download an Ascii e-mail 
and an html formatted e-mail would be a tiny fraction of the cost of the 
cup of coffee I am drinking as I compose this. 

Your message could not of course be used by those that live in the 
States where there is no charge for local calls. 

The bandwidth and standards issue seems to be something of a holy war 
rather than a logical argument. The anti-html e-mail crusade appears to 
have as its objective the preservation of civilisation as we know it and 
the sanctity of standards. (Next perhaps "TCPIP is an abomination - all 
right-thinking citizens use Morse"). 

If the Internet is about to collapse under the rising tide of html e-mail 
sending rude messages to those that use it is not likely to change the 
course of history. 

The fact is that more and more people are using html e-mail. It is also a 
fact that Internet transmission times are in general falling not rising. The 
provision of bandwidth is getting ever cheaper. 

To advocate sending automatic rude responses to those that address you 
using a format of which should disapprove seems to me to be about as 
sensible as tearing up a letter written on a luxurious paper on the 
grounds that this will preserve the rain forests. 

An increasing amount of my business is Internet dependent and an 
increasing proportion of e-mails I receive are in html format. (I consider 
it courteous and hence good for business to reply in the same format). 
You seem to be suggesting that I should reduce myself to penury by 
insulted  my clients simply to preserve the purity of Internet standards. 

I wonder who I phone to obtain 24 hour police protection ...