HTML and RTF mail -- Not entirely user control

I, too, dislike HTML and RTF mail. I usually read all of my e-mail lists in digest form (which I am waiting to have activated for this list...), which means HTML letters cannot easily be deleted (a small price to pay). Most lists I am on filter those out at the server end. At the same time, any time you get a new user, you usually have to be patient and tell them how to turn off that feature if they are Netscape or IE user. But that isn't the only issue.... More serious, however, is that user may not be in full control over the turning off of that feature. The ISP and/or the organzation you work for may have control over the form that mail goes out onto the Internet. A good instance is the college I work for, and others that depend upon Microsoft Exchange Servers (regardless of the client end). Normally in X.400 protocol, when mail does go out the SMTP pipeline (such as to this list) the mail still goes out in HTML. My computer center apparently doesn't know how to turn that off (or will not do it), although I've asked them many times. They, like Microsoft, are counting on the users at the other end being individuals using either a browser interface or an Exchange-compatible client, both which will know how to deal with non-text files. So it becomes an institutional problem, out of control of the user. I get around it because I also have access to a Unix box, which is what I use for all e-mail list interactions. Expect this type of problem to happen more and more into the future as more users come online with non-Text based e-mail clients. Me and you folks will be unfortunately the exception. As a sidebar, I can take the "reply to" feature either way -- as a digest user for all my e-mail lists, I always have to cut-and- paste my address and subject lines (or retype them), as a reply would go only to the list (and never to the user), plus the subject line would be all wrong (Re: Digest 1002...; not to forget that I will have Mbytes of reply text to edit each time) My recommendation would be to follow whatever the current RFC standard is -- after all, the Internet functions only because people have adopted protocols. My two cents worth... Regards, Kevin Anderson * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Kevin L. Anderson Ph.D., Geography Department, Augustana College Rock Island, Illinois 61201-2296, USA phone: (309) 794-7325 e-mail: kla(a)helios.augustana.edu -or- gganderson(a)augustana.edu * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Opinions expressed here are my own and do not represent the administration of Augustana College.