In message , Paul
Martin writes:
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HTML posts are much easier to read and to quote

That's just so wrong...

.. It's his opinion. I don't happen to agree with it either, but it isn't
wrong. ..
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You're forcing HTML. You're forcing colours and fonts and layout.

.. Actually, you're forcing lots of extra garbage like [font]; it is the
reader which might interpret it into colours and fonts. However, most
readers are indeed capable of so doing these days. (And blind access
software can then just access the text.) ..

If you want to your reader can just extract the text and ignore everything.

.. Again, _most_ readers can. Whether those who like using HTML should
refrain from using it just for the benefit of the declining proportion
of users whose readers can't separate the text from the garbage is an
argument which has no end. ..

So you're going to send a plain text version *and* an HTML version, ie.
multipart/alternative? How utterly wasteful.

.. Though I agree (but that's probably at least partly because I'm not
fond of HTML), I don't usually raise that argument these days - for most
people bandwidth - at least to this extent - isn't really a problem.
(Even on dialup, multipart emails and posts of this type aren't really
significant, compared to even the smallest picture.) ..

Usenet is words without markup.

.. It can be. ..

That is also rubbish.
If it doesn't have mark up why are my quotes marked with "".
Quoting the replies is using a mark up language, just a very simple one that
is frequently screwed up as the opening quote is "" and the end is nl
both of which frequently occur in other places.

.. The difference with the quoting convention is that, if the "marked-up"
text is not parsed in any way (such as turning the quote indicators into
vertical lines), it rarely renders the text much harder to read (except,
perhaps, via access software where they are often rendered as "greater
than"); HTML, however, if not rendered, [boing]renders the [font]text
very hard to[/font] read[/boing]. ..
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.. I suspect I'm not quite getting the joke there, though I might be!
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G.5AL-IS-P--Ch++(p)Ar@T0H+Sh0!:`)DNAf
** http://www.soft255.demon.co.uk/G6JPG-PC/JPGminPC.htm for ludicrously
outdated thoughts on PCs. **

"We know that primitive man felt anger, as is evidenced by the deep kick marks
that archeologists have found in prehistoric vending machines." - Dave Barry