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•Formatting
As has been mentioned in the content
section, plain text is preferable for bulk email and is
recommended. However, there may be limited circumstances in
which inclusion of formatted messages or attachments may be considered,
particularly if the recipients are expecting it. Even in these
cases, there are considerations to bear in mind. Any formatting will increase the size of a message compared with a plain text equivalent, typically by a factor of at least 10 in html and 100 or more if sent as a word document. Pictures and other graphic objects add enormously to the size. Bear in mind that the mail message will be larger than its component parts as messages are encoded. There are two main reasons why large messages are undesirable in bulk email. Firstly, they increase load on the network and servers, wasting resources. Even in servers which store such messages as a single message, if the message is saved as a word file, for example, multiple copies will impact on disk space. Secondly, user target mailboxes tend to be small particularly on commercial servers. Many are only a few megabytes and these can fill up quite quickly. If users lose other email because their mailbox has been filled up by your large marketing email, it is likely to antagonise them negating any positive impact of the message. Thirdly, some people still use outdated technology, such as dial-up modems, rather than broadband. This is likely to be the case for some time even in the UK and longer in other countries. Large messages take longer to download so are more likely to be discarded than read. Readability Not all formats are readable by all. Whilst PCs running Microsoft Word dominate the University they are not totally Universal and other types of system are in use (eg Linux and Apple Macintosh systems). Whilst free software is available to read Word documents on PC and Linux systems, this is not true for all Macintosh systems. Care also needs to be taken when sending messages from Microsoft Outlook. We have experienced several problems with messages sent by Outlook users when read by people using Outlook Express. Whilst we discourage use of Outlook Express within the University it is probably the most commonly used mail program generally. Before bulk email is sent outside the University, readability should be checked in a variety of mail clients.– Viruses and other malicious code Some formats of email message can carry virises or similar malware. Whilst many sites scan these, some refuse certain types of attachment because they consider the risk of accepting such an attachment outweighs the benefits. Some people will not trust these types of attachment unless it arrives in a personal email from someone they know (some won't even trust these as viruses spread this way). The following are examples of the types of attachment which can carry malicious code which have been sent as marketing email. Executable
attachments (eg .exe, .com, .vbs files)
Screen Severs Word Documents HTML (Web format) Such formats should be avoidfed because of the problems that they can cause. Executable attachments and screensavers are blocked at the campus borders. Last Updated 21 October 2003. Please mail any comments to C.B.Bayliss@bham.ac.uk
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