html is evil (was Re: Ignore this- it's just a Test Message

[Tom Coetser]

My apologies for going way off topic here...

On Saturday 08 October 2011 11:38:35 Don Quixote de la Mancha wrote:
> On Sat, Oct 8, 2011 at 2:01 AM, Liz <edodd at billiau.net> wrote:
> >> But I hate html-mail, only phish- and enlarger-spams need them

[...snip...]

> A simple solution would be for HTML mailers to restrict the kinds of
> markup that would be accepted, and for SMTP servers to strip out
> markup that could be dangerous.  For example one can also include

This is the same as saying that a postal service should open every letter and 
parcel they handle to make sure there is nothing dangerous or offensive in the 
letter or parcel. Imagine the outrage if postal services announces that they 
will from now on open every letter and start scratching out the bits they deem 
dangerous or offensive. And of course, who decides what is offensive or 
dangerous?

This is not the responsibility for an SMTP server. The fact that HTML is not a 
good thing in email, I'm sure most people that understand the dangers and 
problems will agree with. The fact that people would want to format and 
highlight their emails, I'm sure many people will also agree with. So the 
proper solution would probably be a special type of email markup to let people 
make their emails look pretty *without* the pitfalls of HTML. But, definitely 
not a simple solution.


/Tom