Re: Re: HTML E-mails

On Tue, 23 Jul 2002, Manuel Lemos wrote: > On 07/23/2002 02:40 AM, Miguel Cruz wrote: >> On Sun, 21 Jul 2002, Richard Lynch wrote: >>> Actually, though, when my clients insist on HTML email, I just >>> tell them: "No. If you want that feature, you'll have to hire >>> somebody else to do it. I've already explained why." I don't think >>> I've lost a single client that way -- Every one of >>> them has re-considered my advice, and outright >>> refusal, and decided maybe I *do* know what the hell I'm talking about. >>> YMMV. >> >> I agree with everything you say. Furthermore, I think that >> when I'm being paid for my expertise, I have a specific responsibility >> to stop people from doing stupid things, even if they do happen to >> really want them. There is no honor - and in the long term, no >> future - in casting aside my better judgment because I once read that >> "the customer is always right." > > It is good when you can discourage your customers to use a certain wide > spread technology for good reasons and still get paid for that. > > Anyway, would you object to develop a system for a customer where it is > needed to send messages to clients that do not oppose to receive > messages in HTML? If so, why? I have never had a customer say "We have three people, and I personally installed their email client, and I want to develop a web-based system for sending mail to them." What I have heard quite a lot is "We have a growing list of clients and I would like to send mail to all of them." This customer is not served by having a system that sends confusing scrambled-looking messages to their clients. Better everyone has a slightly blander experience than 10% of the users be permanently alienated. If they have a way to definitively determine that users are consistently using HTML-capable MUAs, that's excellent, and I would not discourage them from sending HTML-formatted messages to those users. miguel