Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 21:17:29 -0400
From: Ted White <tedwhite at compusnet.com>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: sig line
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

"Keith F. Lynch" wrote:

> "lee gilliland" <leeandalexis at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > ... how come if that link is HTML it could appear on the list?
>
> A message isn't HTML just because it contains a URL such as
> "http://hr.uoregon.edu/davidrl/latin.html".  Nor is it HTML because
> the source code for the web page at that URL is in HTML.
>
> A message in HTML looks something like the following.

<snip>

No, that's what it looks like *viewed as plain text*.  Anyone who looked at
it in, say, MS Outlook/Express, would have seen all sorts of glitzy graphics,
colors, and typefaces.

The trend is in this direction, Keith.  MS Outlook/Express (which I have on
this machine, but rarely use) now *defaults* to HTML-rich email, and they
keep burying the fixes deeper down and away from the consumer-user (Mom &
Pop).   AOL, in both versions 6.0 and 7.0, not only default to HTML-rich
email, they make it impossible to go to a plain text mode.   As we all know,
most PCs are sold with the MS browser & email client installed as part of
Windows, and the Vast Majority of consumer-users accept this as Just Fine
(which has shrunk Netscape from a one-time commanding lead to a present-day
dwindling minority).   And AOL (the N3F of consumer-users) has the largest
subscriber base of all "ISP"s by a huge margin.  Most AOL users (I know
several) install each "upgrade" AOL feeds them, working under the assumption
that it must be "better."  Soon, if not already, the Vast Majority of home PC
consumer-users will be accustomed to and using HTML-rich email.  That's why
so much of the spam out there now comes in this form (often requiring a
browser-linkage to its website via hidden links to provide the graphics).

Netiquet calls for plain text on news groups and elists (like this one) but
about half the lists I'm on include people who post HTML-rich messages (which
I reduce to plain text in my replies).

--Ted White