31–40 of 70 posts
I'm one of the developers for the Direct Mail app mentioned in the article. Would be happy to answer any questions. Thanks for the interesting post!
I work for a decent sized publishing co that sends a lot of email newsletters as part of it's core biz. I know this e3 thing is part of your service, but is there any planned integration with something like Exact Target (via API, not just SMTP)? Thanks!
> 79% of your readers spent longer than 2+ seconds looking at your email I understand how opened emails can be tracked without javascript, via server hits to img files, but what magic allows you to track how long it was opened?
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Yes, spam is a profitable business, that's probably why there is so much more of it than personal email.
I don't see how opt-in messages from a paid service qualify as spam.
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And how HTML in emails is getting in the way of communication? Most people use GMail as their email client, so even when they read plain text emails what they actually see is HTML email. The only difference is typeface, but you can configure that.
HTML as a technology to render plain text obviously isn't getting in the way, because it's plain text. All the features of HTML beyond that get in the way by obscuring the plain text and the information plain text conveys. In my mind, email, or text communication, is not about presentation but is about textual content. If you want to deliver media or style or a visual presentation, it's just not email. I would strong…
I don't see any obfuscation happening in the emails shown in this article. Rather, the article's suggestions give even more emphasis to the text.
"Grr HTML bad" is not a very defensible position.
> In my mind, email, or text communication, is not about presentation but is about textual content.
It was recognized before email even existed that presentation is fundamental to textual communication. Cf. the works of Jan Tschichold and Marshall McLuhan to pick two arbitrary examples.
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I get a lot of opt-in messages that I didn't really opt-in for, as does everyone. How many people do you think even know what 'opt-in' is ?
Do you get any email you did really opt-in for? If so, just think of those.
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Best Practices for all HTML messages is to also send a Text-Only version. Have you configured your client to prefer the text version?
Nearly all marketing messages that I receive are HTML only, not multipart. In fact, this is a problem that seems almost as if it is specific to marketing spam; ordinary people who send HTML mail seem to use MUAs that sensibly send a plain text part as well. But whatever tools marketers use to send their "newsletters" seem to be ignorant of best practices, or they just don't care about the small market segment of peop…
shrug Maybe it depends on the type of stuff you're getting.
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Well if people read them and click on the links from these emails, then you must be wrong. Surprise! Did you even read the post? If you don't want them, it doesn't mean nobody does. There's also an unsubscribe link at the bottom.
Yes, I read the entire post from beginning to end. I still wholeheartedly believe that nobody wants e-mails like this. Yes, I'm speaking in absolutes and yes, I don't give a damn. > If you don't want them, it doesn't mean nobody does. Correct. I chose to speak in absolutes to make a point. > There's also an unsubscribe link at the bottom. That's wonderful, but I'm pretty sure the terminal emulator I'm running Alpine…
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And how HTML in emails is getting in the way of communication? Most people use GMail as their email client, so even when they read plain text emails what they actually see is HTML email. The only difference is typeface, but you can configure that.
HTML as a technology to render plain text obviously isn't getting in the way, because it's plain text. All the features of HTML beyond that get in the way by obscuring the plain text and the information plain text conveys. In my mind, email, or text communication, is not about presentation but is about textual content. If you want to deliver media or style or a visual presentation, it's just not email. I would strong…
The more ways you have to convey the information, the better, imo.
A counterpoint:
I subscribe to several HTML newsletters, and the fact that they are in HTML is a huge advantage to me. It means that JavaScript Weekly (Peter Cooper's newsletter) isn't just a mass of URLs. And it means that I can quickly preview the newest fonts from FontShop without having to visit their site.
You may not like HTML email, but it has tangible benefits to many of us.