Posted by Jon B on 11/16/39 11:36

CQ <me@privacy.com> wrote:

>
> The most compelling reason that usenet (and wise email) is done with
> plain text is because a malicious person can use simple html commands to
> cause problems with another's computer. When a program renders the html
> commands it sees, if those commands are either faulty or just plain
> malicious, it can cause problems ranging from lock-ups to crashes to even
> worse (in a paranoid worst case scenario the "attacker" can gain control
> of the "victims" computer). The use of plain text on usenet (and in wise
> use of email) simply eliminates this problem and/or threat completely.
> Many people (myself included) feel that the small price to pay of having
> to use an occasional asterisk or underscore, _if needed_, are well worth
> the effort. Simply not using html eliminates the very real possibility
> of html being used sloppily, badly or maliciously.
>
That and of course a HTML message takes up a lot more code to say the
same thing, so if you were downloading from a few groups and that
amounted to 1000 messages per day [1], you'd have to download approx
5-10x as much data.

This is why I don't bother with web forums as so many are that full of
html crap, avitars etc etc that make it slow to such a crawl it isn't
worth bothering with.

[1] As quite a few of us do.
--
Jon B
real email to usenet at jonbradbury dot com

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