Love Gone Bad: HTML in Email (Re: [tlug] Rendering HTML Email)

[Jim <jep200404@example.com>]

Executive summary:

   HTML in email could have been useful, but because of heavy use
   by sloppy and malicious senders, it became a blight to be 
   avoided.

Originally, I used plain text email exclusively.
That's all there was.

Later I used Netscape for email. Like a five year old boy with a
shiny new hammer, for Netscape, email was another nail to pound
with HTML. Although I sent plain text email, I did not have
strong feelings about HTML email one way or another.

HTML email looked cute.

Email is very mature, so competition is keen with each vendor
trying to outdo each other. HTML can make email pretty, so it
gained much acceptance. Especially when sending email in HTML
became the default, people starting sending much email in HTML,
without even knowing what HTML is or that they were sending email
in HTML. Those people thought HTML email was cute also.

They starting telling me what size I should be reading in. I
already had set my email reader to the most comfortable size
for me, and they were overriding what was good for me.

They started using garish colors, or colors that were hard for me
to read. I already had configured my email reader program for the
optimal colors for my own use. Why were they overriding them?

They started dictating the page size. They started using
non-standard HTML that did not render correctly. When I told them
that their non-standard HTML that did not render correctly,
they blamed me for not "upgrading" to use the same email program
they used.

In short, HTML was making my email hard to read.

They started sending copies of real web pages instead of
just sending me an URL.

Spammers got into the act. They were more agressive in abusing
the above afflictions and added some new ones. By using unique
URLs for images, they could track which victims read their email
and so knew which victims to spam more. Even worse, some
malicious spammers crossed over to exploiting vulnerabilities in
the HTML renderers to get more sensitive information such as bank
account numbers and PINs from victims or to take over victim's 
machines altogether. HTML became an essentual tool for 
identity theft. 

There _are_ good uses for HTML email. Judicious use of
underlining, italicizing, and boldening would be great. Even
better, judicious use of fonts like some serious tomes use to
distinguish between main text and that which is quoted, and
commands as they are to be typed literally or where there are
options on the command line, could be of great benefit on _this_
mailing list.

Unfortunately, sloppy, inconsiderate and malicious use has
condemned HTML in email.

The good uses of HTML were rare and the annoying uses of HTML
were numerous. Slowly I evolved from seeing HTML email as cute,
to innocuous kitsch, to an annoyance that also had privacy and
security ramifications. There must have been at least one
piece of email that I received that was improved with HTML,
but I could not remember a single instance of such. Slowly I came
to see HTML email as a solution for a problem I don't have and
eventually I saw it only in negative terms. HTML also bloats
email and my archives.

There are many ways to coping with an annoyance. Without seeing
any benefit, eventually I got tired of the annoyance and said to
heck with it. This is how I came to shun HTML in email. 

Here's how you can turn off HTML in the email that your email 
program sends: 

   http://www.expita.com/nomime.html#programs

Jim