10 
, from oldest to newest:
Just don't include big honkin graphics. In fact, it would be great if you didn't include any at all. Nothing I hate more than clicking on an innocuous looking email in my inbox and having to wait 5-10 seconds for the graphics to load... ugh. But I trust you... I say go for it, if it makes your life easier.
Posted by Brenda J @ 08/08/2001 09:07 AM CST
~~~
It won't make my life hell, but I won't be able to read Gleanings anymore. :( I use Eudora, which can't read (most) HTML email.
Also, I hate HTML email. There are many folks out there that feel the same way about it. The problem is, I can't seem to find an argument to back up my stance. I have this sense that HTML email is somehow Wrong and Bad, but beyond complaining about the security of Microsoft's implementation of it, I can't really offer up an argument.
After all, the Web is better with HTML than with just plain text, right? Why not email?
Anyone have any thoughts on this?
Posted by jkottke @ 08/08/2001 09:11 AM CST
~~~
We had a client who switched to html email and they got a monumental number of overwhelmingly favorable replies from their users; however, their corporate email program didn't allow html emails (making it difficult to achieve signoff).
Now that I'm surfing from home while I look for a new (and -ahem- stable) job, I personally find html email to be a pain in the ass. But hey, if it's easier for you... :-)
By the way, there are ways of doing both text and html email...
Posted by lynd @ 08/08/2001 09:40 AM CST
~~~
I use Pine, so my mail client doesn't render HTML. If you have lots of formatting and a table based layout I'll probably unsub. If you're just inserting tags and links, I'll probably just grumble a bit and deal with it.
Posted by nadav @ 08/08/2001 11:14 AM CST
~~~
Yuk!
Funny, just this evening I was reading a rant about why plaintext and e-mail are perfect together. Well, actually it was more about how HTML e-mail is part of Microsoft's Evil Plot for World Domination, but it was still interesting.
I suppose it depends how you format it. I've got Eudora Pro set to strip all HTML formatting, which makes many HTML-formatted messages look just like plaintext, but manages to make the entire content of some messages completely disappear. As these are invariably spam, I haven't bothered to look at the code to figure out why it does this, so I can't tell you what to avoid.
Since half the time I read my e-mail in /bin/mail from an ssh session, I guess I'll just reserve my reading of Gleanings for the times I pick up my mail with Eudora if you make the move.
I dunno, one of the things I like best about e-mail is its universal availability. I used to take my Newton 120 on business trips with me (before it died) and use a telnet client to dial in to work to read my e-mail (and even edit web sites on a couple of occasions). I was going to do the same with my Palm, but got a laptop before I needed to use the Palm that way. Anyway HTML formatting is a step away from that universality, and just on philosophical grounds, I hate to see that.
In short, I don't like the idea, but it wouldn't keep me from reading Gleanings.
Posted by ralph @ 08/08/2001 08:07 PM CST
~~~
you know, i'm sure that if you asked nicely you could probably find some gleanings-loving programmer/scripter-type out there who would work with you to find a way to automate the process of converting from html to text (aren't you using greymatter? seems like it would be pretty simple).
a much better solution, if you ask me. because i hate html mail with a fiery passion that burns like a thousand suns.
Posted by Lane @ 08/09/2001 07:53 AM CST
~~~
Forgive the naive question, but how going to HTML mail would make your life easier?
I'd vote for it, if only because Gleanings could be more visually interesting in HTML.
Posted by Jon @ 08/09/2001 03:10 PM CST
~~~
the long story is--
right now I compose gleanings in email. I then send it via dreamhost, and then transfer it all into greymatter. I found I need to remove links written out in full because they are often long and will cause a horizontal scroll, which means considering what to link, and how to make the dang thing make sense. it's html that's making a lot of the work, but the alternative is...?? I've been planning to merge gleanings and the blog into one uber-entity, and mail it out once/twice a week. if I could do a quick view source and then cut and paste, it would be fast.
As for volunteers, well, Lane, I wish! I've got a couple extra hands helping on badpractices.com, but they are both designer/IA's. I haven't been lucky with coder-help so far. How are your coding skills? grin It's clearly time for me to learn perl, but that would mean no gleanings for a few weeks. sigh.
I suspected most folks would not want it; I'll keep trying to find a solution that works with my new living-with-husband status (i.e. less idle time) and my surfoholic ways.
Posted by christina @ 08/09/2001 04:54 PM CST
~~~
I would strongly prefer if you would stick to plain text. I use a text based mail reader called Mutt (www.mutt.org), which is basically Pine for people who want to customize the living bejeezus of their email client.
HTML mail:
(a) is a pain for me to deal with, though not impossible
(b) something I usually identify with spam. By far the majority of the mail I get is plaintext and the majority of the spam I get is HTML.
(c) even when I've used GUI email clients, HTML mail hasn't provided any outstanding advantages over plaintext.
But I do accept that I'm in the minority of people who do not use a GUI email client.
Posted by Karl Fast @ 08/10/2001 10:09 AM CST
~~~
Why not use a predone perl mailing list like this: http://mojo.skazat.com/
you can have people pick either the html version or the plain text, and it automatically converts from html to text for you text prefering types withouth having to write two versions of your newsletter. I'll install if for you if you like. Least I can do for all the things I've learned on this list and site.
Posted by James @ 08/10/2001 10:22 AM CST
~~~
