[thelist] RE: Email confirmation: html or plain?

[ANDREA STREIGHT]

My filthy rotten two cents worth of opinion:

I hate HTML Emails. I don't read them, I just delete them.

Once a sender switches over to HTML newsletters, that's precisely when I 
stop reading them, unless I can opt for Plain Text Version. New York Times 
daily headlines I receive in Plain Text, then go to their web site for more 
info if interested in deck.

HTML emails are a wonderful way to receive viruses and other malicious code.

A famous, well respected online copy expert had his mailing list hijacked 
and the culprit sent a virus HTML email "newsletter update" to everyone on 
his list. I'm not geeky enough to explain exactly how the culprit accessed 
his mailing list, maybe through malware, but it happened. I do not open his 
emails anymore.

I think Jakob Nielsen has said that HTML email is a gimmick to send what 
amounts to "web pages" to inboxes. I agree with this statement. Email, IMHO, 
is for fast, brief, text messages. Not fancy graphic gimmicks and other 
junky clutter that generally distracts from the message.

My filthy rotten opinionated two cents.


Steven Streight
Web Usability Analyst/Web Artist
astreight at msn.com
vaspersthegrate at yahoo.com
www.vaspersthegrate.blogspot.com
www.streightsite.blogspot.com
www.arttestexplosion.blogspot.com