Community Speaks Against PDFs

The MN Independent commissioned a poll of the interested people to determine if they prefer PDF or HTML (blog) format, and the results are in, PDFs are out.

The competition between the formats has been raging for years, and yet PDF seems to have carved out a durable niche. The simple truth seems to be that PDF fills a need that HTML does not. HTML is not a good media for documents that need to maintain their formatting no matter what viewing device is used. HTML, however, is far more flexible and allows the viewer, called a browser, to render a "best fit" version.

PDFs are also very useful for exporting information from programs that save data in a proprietary format that may not be present on the target machine.

All that having been said, the simple truth of user experience when related to MN commentary delivery is overwhelming. When asked about the competing technologies HM King Guy I had this to say:

PDFs suck ass. Only a moron would use them for an MN news service.

Of course, TMI does not agree. TMI thinks this statement is a bit too strong. We believe that people of exceptionally bad judgement, and with a total lack of user interface understanding would use PDF, not just morons.

In the end, the community has spoken and so TMI will continue to publish in the HTML (blog) format until such time as we feel like doing something different. (Those smoke signals are still looking interesting.)