In what format do you prefer to receive the Nisus newsletter

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In what format do you prefer to receive the Nisus newsletter?

text only
29
76%
HTML
9
24%
 
Total votes: 38

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martin
Official Nisus Person
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Location: San Diego, CA
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Post by martin »

One thing to consider is that we realize people hate overformatted HTML emails. We wouldn't stuff tons of graphics, animated icons, javascripts, Flash, ActiveX, or other such nonsense into our newsletter.

What we're talking about here is adding some formatting that makes the newsletter easier to read and navigate. Some tastefully used bold/italic/colors and additional links that can be put inline with the text, rather than separated out. Perhaps we'd add a table or two to make sure things lay out properly, and eventually we might get crazy and stick a Nisus logo in there, but nothing big/flashy/wasteful.

I feel that a lot of people voting for plain text have simply been soured by other HTML emails they receive.
Mr Tea
Posts: 5
Joined: 2004-11-01 14:50:56

Post by Mr Tea »

I prefer text, but I think you should make an HTML version of the newsletter available online, with a link to it in the email.

Why an online version? If I want to visit multiple links from within the newsletter, I can easily get back to it just by using the back button in my browser. I don't have to switch back and forth between my browser and email client.
"Always remember to warm the pot."
Michael_Adams
Posts: 1
Joined: 2005-01-20 18:13:43
Contact:

Newsletter

Post by Michael_Adams »

Text is OK with me. 8)
johnsinhos
Posts: 1
Joined: 2005-01-20 19:33:18
Location: São Paulo, SP - BRAZIL
Contact:

text ONLY please!!

Post by johnsinhos »

All eMail should ALWAYS be in plain text. The idea of inserting a link to an html formatted newsletter is, by far, the best and most democratic. Hear ye!!
Adrien
Posts: 2
Joined: 2004-09-11 10:33:33
Location: Hampshire, UK
Contact:

Martin wants to try out a basic HTML, I change to yes

Post by Adrien »

Martin: "What we're talking about here is adding some formatting that makes the newsletter easier to read and navigate."

Martin clearly wants to try out a basic HTML; 33 voters is not a significant sample to deter him. The Nice newsletter may appeal to more NWE users? I change my vote to HTML as described.
Adrien
UK :D
User avatar
Demolition
Posts: 4
Joined: 2002-09-12 21:53:47
Location: Canada

Re: In what format do you prefer to receive the Nisus newsle

Post by Demolition »

martin wrote:But for now, since we only have one newsletter, which format do you prefer?
Until you offer a choice between plain text and HTML-formatted newsletters, your newsletters must be in plain text because there is no guarantee that your subscribers' e-mail clients will render the HTML formatting properly. Whereas, any e-mail client will render plain text e-mail properly.

Secondly, there is no question that an HTML-formatted e-mail is often many times larger than a plain text e-mail that contains the same information. As a result, download times are increased and bandwidth is wasted. Those with access to broadband Internet access may not notice, but those who only have dial-up access surely do notice, especially if they subscribe to many such newsletters and/or receive large amounts of e-mail.

Thirdly, it is worth noting that there are security and spamming issues with HTML-formatted e-mail. For example, see this Apple Knowledgebase article. A Google search for such keywords as "plain text html email" will bring up many other examples.

Therefore, when you finally make the choice between plain text and HTML available to subscribers, the default should remain as plain text. This is just common courtesy.

D.


p.s. I voted for text. I'm one of those people that I described above who receives large volumes of e-mail and must wait for long periods of time as it downloads because I frequently travel on business to places that only have dial-up access . For me, HTML-formatted e-mail is a bane.
thomo
Posts: 1
Joined: 2005-01-24 05:41:11

Post by thomo »

Handwritten please :!:
Wizardling
Posts: 2
Joined: 2005-03-28 21:59:32
Location: New Zealand

Post by Wizardling »

martin wrote:One thing to consider is that we realize people hate overformatted HTML emails. We wouldn't stuff tons of graphics, animated icons, javascripts, Flash, ActiveX, or other such nonsense into our newsletter.

What we're talking about here is adding some formatting that makes the newsletter easier to read and navigate. Some tastefully used bold/italic/colors and additional links that can be put inline with the text, rather than separated out. Perhaps we'd add a table or two to make sure things lay out properly, and eventually we might get crazy and stick a Nisus logo in there, but nothing big/flashy/wasteful.

I feel that a lot of people voting for plain text have simply been soured by other HTML emails they receive.
In that case why not just use Setext? That way you'll get some nice formatting if you want, otherwise it'll still be perfectly readable as plain text. Best of both worlds IMHO. Tidbits works very well as Setext.

I dislike HTML email and hope Nisus uses either Setext or basic plain text formatting in the future - _not_ page after extra page of crappy HTML formatting which I'm hard pressed to think how it'll improve the delivery.

Regards,
Jamie Kahn Genet
If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.
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