RE: Off Topic - HTML mail

[Michael Champion <mike.champion@softwareag-usa.com>]

> Can anyone give me a single good reason (privately or
> publically) to use HTML email? I'm deleting what may be
> interesting postings because they're too annoying and
> difficult to read, though I might persist if I knew why people
> send them.

 I'm one of the offenders here (Marcus has politely asked me privately not to
do it in the past), and I will bravely blame it on Microsoft <grin>.  I have
an environment where Exchange is the mail server and Outlook is the
recommended client.  When I choose "Plain Text" in Outlook as the format for
messages that get redistributed to mailing lists, some bit of software
somewhere changes the format to HTML with a microscopic font and no line
breaks.  I *know* it looks hideous in the archive and when I see my own
messages back.

So, I generally use HTML with a monospace font to generate messages that at
least look like plain text in Outlook and in the archives.  If I'm properly
motivated by shame (such as I am now), I'll compose in Outlook Express,
cutting and pasting the quoted text, subject, etc. from Outlook.  For whatever
reason, choosing plain text in Outlook Express (and using my ISP's mail server
to send it to the list) works the way one would expect, but requires more
hassle on my part. I've tried various suggestions and alternate solutions
(such as using Outlook Express as the client), but all have various other
problems .

So, long complicated explanation, the gist of which is that sending HTML mail
is the path of least resistance in my environment. Not a good reason, I'll
admit..but I'm wondering how many others can't cope with HTML mail in this day
and age?