[sclug] Question about HTML format e-mails

[Tom Chance]

On Thursday 02 Dec 2004 21:57, Neil Owens wrote:
> I'm curious about the utter contempt (I think this is correct) of HTML
> format e-mail in the Linux community.

My client (KMail) renders it perfectly well. But here are three reasons why 
it's not the greatest idea:

1 - It's a great way for spammers to harvest addresses, and for nasty people 
to load nasty content up in your mail client. Just include an image that 
loads off a remote server and you're done, or have some javascript that will 
try and execute an attachment or other nasty code.

2 - It wastes bandwidth, which can be a real pain in the arse if you download 
a lot of it on a slow connection.

3 - Mail clients often struggle to render it as quickly and as well. The 
problems can be especially bad for people with visual difficulties where the 
HTML defines subtle or difficult styles

Worst of all, it's unecessary. It's like people sending you plain text saved 
in a Word document... it's both potentially dangerous, irritating, a waste of 
bandwidth, inaccessible *and* pointless.

I can't say I go bezerk when receiving it, but it's one of those things that 
can really get up your nose when you're not having a good day :o)

Regards,
Tom