HTML Mail

["M. Lazarus" <mlazarus@xxxxxxxx>]

Hans,

At 6/7/01 03:27 PM -0400, you wrote:
>There are other reasons for disabling HTML rendering for
>e-mail.  One of the best is SPAM.  If a spammer knows
>that you're reading his e-mail, your e-mail id is gold!
>One way for a spammer to know if you're reading his
>e-mail is with a "web bug".  That's an IMG tag pointing
>to some resource at the spammers domain with some unique
>id.  If that resource is requested, bingo!  The spammer
>knows who is reading his e-mail!  Turn off HTML rendering,
>and the "web bug" is disabled.

>There are also forms of "web bugs" that can secretly
>e-mail a message back to the originator whenever an e-mail
>is forwarded to someone else!  These take advantage of
>JavaScript embedded in the e-mail.

  I don't know about Outlook, but in Eudora it's easy to turn off HTML 
executables, leaving the advantages of HTML text.


>Maybe I'm strange, but I'd rather be impressed with the
>thoughts and ideas expressed in an e-mail message rather
>than its visual appearance.

  Bold, italics, fonts and occasionally color, when used judiciously, can 
make a point much better than plain text.  These techniques are used in 
most printed forms of communication, why not email?  We are very used to it 
when browsing the web.  Going back to plain text email reminds me of the 
BBSs of the 80's!

  -mark

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