[font=verdana]How about…
(i) because lots of people won’t be able to see the graphic at all
(ii) because lots of people’s email systems will automatically block it as spam
(iii) because plenty of people who can see the image will have a screen/window the wrong size or shape and it won’t fit
(iv) because it’s a massive bandwidth overload that people don’t want in their email
(v) because people who sign up to newsletters want to receive newsletters that sit in their inbox, and they don’t want to have to load up a web page to perform basic functions like copying a line of text, or even just reading the wretched thing.
That way the recipient would get a screen shot of the newsletter. The graphic would be linked to the online version of the newsletter. Any “link” on the graphic would be linked to the online newsletter by virtue of the fact that the whole graphic is linked to the online version.
It then becomes much more difficult to give specific links within the newsletter, which you would have to do as an imagemap – are you really going to put the time in to set that up? Because if I clicked on what was clearly intended as a link to another site and all it did was open up the newsletter I was looking at in a browser, I would be mightily pissed off.
Problem 1
Letter is too long for one screen shot.
Solution: Make 2 or three screen shots (images), all linked to the online version. The images should but up against each other (no spaces) and all appear as one newsletter.
Problem 2
One graphic will take too long to render.
Solution: Same as 1
Doesn’t solve the problem of massive downloads, and doesn’t solve the problem of people on mobiles who can’t see the entire width of the graphic on their screen in one go.
Problem 3
What about text only people and those with images blocked.
Solution: They will see the link to click for the online version which is what they would see anyway with html newsletters that provide a link at the top
And they will wonder why they signed up for a newsletter from someone who is so inconsiderate and self-important that he thinks his pretty graphics are more important than their facility to read the newsletter in plain text.
The winner of the community spirit award knows how to interact with a community and develop a community spirit within that community, and he knows that if you treat your community with contempt and show no regard for their ease of interaction, they will likewise treat the community with contempt and will delete messages without reading them.
Settle down mate,
There’s no call to be patronising and condescending when talking to someone who knows way more about the subject than you do and is highly respected here just because you don’t agree with his response. If you want to remain an active member of these forums, you will treat all other members with respect.
1 “text only” comes out as times new ( looks great on paper and godawful on a screen) roman
Only if you have set your mail client up to display in Times New Roman. Most people are smarter than that.
2 the vast majority of newsletters are html anyway and most provide a link to the online version (html) for text only folks, because if your email is set to text only you will usually see a mess
and pictures
a) tell a lot of the story (worth a thousand words they reckon)
b) put you in a good frame of mind, 'cause it (hopefully) looks pleasant
[Imagine a magazine with nothing but print. No one would buy it.]
c) Even basic formatting without pics wont work in ascii - you wouldn’t even see a coloured line of text
Most email newsletters come in both plain text and HTML formats (multipart), meaning that people who can only see plain text emails can read the plain text emails (with the option to view the formatted version online if they prefer), and people who can read formatted emails get to read the formatted version. Someone who goes above-and-beyond would include a “plain text or HTML” choice in the sign-up to ensure that people got messages in the correct format. They key thing here is giving your readers the choice, rather than forcing them to fire up a web browser to read an email. There are plenty of times when I don’t want to do that, I don’t want to wait for it to load the page and download the pictures, I just want to read the content. Take that choice away from people and you’ve made it much less likely that they will want to engage with you in the future.[/font]