4 ms·

HTML is what killed email. The younger generation hates email in part because they associate email with spam, and spam email only became a large business becaus

HTML is what killed email. The younger generation hates email in part because they associate email with spam, and spam email only became a large business because of HTML email. Plain text email could not easily be used for advertising, nor did plain text email support clever, manipulative tricks, like embedding hidden images so as to track people without them being aware of being tracked. Also, HTML email was implemented without enough thought as to the security and privacy problems it allowed, and it took 20 years to lock down HTML email to limit the damage to security and privacy. Plain text email was a great communication technology, and fairly immune to spam. I've often thought we should re-launch plain text email as some new, separate protocol. A wider demographic would be willing to communicate with plain text email, just as a wider demographic is comfortable with text messages on their phones.

nuancebydefault 4y ago
Spam heavily uses styling and formatting features of HTML. Similarly, paper advertising uses a lot of color and glossy paper. Saying that HTML killed email is like saying glossy and colorful print killed books.
- JJMcJ 4y ago
  A fancy ad in a magazine (not a book, of course) won't send you 2,000 pieces of advertising mail if you look at. An ad in a magazine won't empty your checking account if you write your phone number in another ad on the page. Unlike email.
- brewdad 4y ago
  Tracking bugs in images is what killed HTML in email. For my security and privacy I have to block all external content by default. This means I get a ton of marketing emails that are either blank or missing the important bits unless I choose to load the external content. The end result is that they almost always get trashed unread. I might actually be missing out on a useful new product or a great deal but I'm not going to bother with the extra clicks and unknown risks because marketing wanted to make it pretty over making it accessible.
  - nuancebydefault 4y ago
    Do you really think you might get great deals by reading emails that you did not ask for? Just remember that the one who sent you the email did it for their own profit. So it's a good thing you thrash them. Most such emails have an unsubscribe link that works. If not, simply mark them as spam. So far for the filtering. The rest of the emails most likely contain good communication with people you know, who mostly do not bother adding bitmaps in their signature; but they might use other paragraph options like bold, italics, in-line photographs or diagrams, code snippets in monospaced font or other features that make the email more readable or informative. So that is why i do not agree with 'html killed email'.

nuancebydefault 4y ago

Spam heavily uses styling and formatting features of HTML. Similarly, paper advertising uses a lot of color and glossy paper. Saying that HTML killed email is like saying glossy and colorful print killed books.

JJMcJ 4y ago
A fancy ad in a magazine (not a book, of course) won't send you 2,000 pieces of advertising mail if you look at. An ad in a magazine won't empty your checking account if you write your phone number in another ad on the page. Unlike email.
brewdad 4y ago
Tracking bugs in images is what killed HTML in email. For my security and privacy I have to block all external content by default. This means I get a ton of marketing emails that are either blank or missing the important bits unless I choose to load the external content. The end result is that they almost always get trashed unread. I might actually be missing out on a useful new product or a great deal but I'm not going to bother with the extra clicks and unknown risks because marketing wanted to make it pretty over making it accessible.
- nuancebydefault 4y ago
  Do you really think you might get great deals by reading emails that you did not ask for? Just remember that the one who sent you the email did it for their own profit. So it's a good thing you thrash them. Most such emails have an unsubscribe link that works. If not, simply mark them as spam. So far for the filtering. The rest of the emails most likely contain good communication with people you know, who mostly do not bother adding bitmaps in their signature; but they might use other paragraph options like bold, italics, in-line photographs or diagrams, code snippets in monospaced font or other features that make the email more readable or informative. So that is why i do not agree with 'html killed email'.