The Richter Scale^®

Perhaps this is a really an issue with all incoming e-mail, but when one gets hundreds of press releases and product announcements the information overload is significant. As is the data volume.

I want to quickly peruse an e-mail and figure out what to do with it. For that reason, as well as because of system security, I use Qualcomm’s Eudora e-mail software, with the Internet Explorer HTML rendering function turned off. I have seen too often with friends and clients and associates where using Microsoft’s Outlook and Outlook Express or Internet Explorer have resulted in them getting infected with a virus or infested with spyware or malware.

This also means, however, that in my e-mail software, I will not see any remotely referenced images (nor will my opening of messages automatically tell some marketer out there that I have seen their e-mail). Eudora also has very basic HTML rendering capability. While it will typically show me formatted (italic, bold, etc.) text, it doesn’t do JavaScript or embedded graphics, and HTML-embedded images with graphical text messages are pretty much completely non-viewable.

The benefit of this is I can quickly read an e-mail without having to wait for images to load. The downside is that if some feels that they need to present their material to me in a way which emphasizes style (pretty looking text and images) over substance (just the facts, using text), I won’t see it. In a way this is actually a good filter - if there’s no text I can read because the entire message is pure HTML, then I typically assume the sender has nothing much to really say and I ignore the e-mail. I also manage to avoid a lot of pr0n spam this way - I just don’t get to see the pictures because Eudora does not show them.

So, if you want to get a message across to me, do it in plain text, not with whiz-bang graphics and pizzazz - that is lost on me and my simple e-mail software. And, text messages are also much, much smaller - saves on storage and bandwidth. And if you really need to send me a product image instead of a link to a page with such content, then send me an attachment, and keep it small.