On Thursday, February 27, 2003, at 07:54 AM, David Wilson wrote:
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At some point, I think math-fun and seqfan will have to acknowledge that technology is moving on. MIME and HTML are different issues, and I don't think they're as much issues of technology as issues of design choices and policies related to . MIME has by now gained wide-spread acceptance and support in current mail readers on Unix platforms as well as PC's and Mac's (which are actually now Unix). I had HTML turned on in my mail reader until I caught on that its main benefit seems to be to spammers--- live links are used to give confirmation that email addresses are valid, also to put in obnoxious unwanted content. For formatted stuff, I'd prefer included PDF or the like. Bill Thurston Microsoft and its applications, the reality is that MS Outlook is now the most commonly-used email application, that it supports HTML and MIME, and that users rely heavily on the associated benefits, such as formatted and colored text, images, backgrounds, links, attachments, etc. I appreciate that math-fun and seqfan like to be accomodating, however, accomodating HTML-disabled users will increasingly disaffect a growing majority of HTML-enabled users, and will deprive math-fun and seqfan of some very useful technologies (when MathML browsers become common, will you not take advantage?). I understand wanting to accomodate HTML-disabled users, and the desire to save on server space; and undercurrents of nostalgia, UNIXphilia, and MSphobia all warm my heart. It may also be that math-fun and seqfan want to discourage a floodgate of membership, considering some recent incidents of inconsiderate new users disrupting our coffeehouse atmosphere. Notwithstanding, my considered opinion is that catering to the technologically lowest common denominator will become increasingly costly to math-fun and seqfan as technology advances.