Question : How can I track email open rates without requiring HTML/images enabled?

We send out a handful of email newsletters, and are trying to get a better idea of who opens these emails.  We use an email sending client (Savicom) to send out our newsletters, and they report a variety of statistics, including open rate.  However, the way they track open rate is through a small tracking image, which when viewed, counts as an open.  Anyone who is viewing a text version, or simply doesn't have images enabled, however, is not counted as an open through their system.

Are there ways we can set up some sort of system that will enable us to more accurately track our opens (maybe through a script, database, or something else)?  Ideally we would like to know not just how many total opens we had, but also which users (email addresses) opened our messages.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Answer : How can I track email open rates without requiring HTML/images enabled?

>> Are there maybe any scripting methods

Not really.  You will always have a problem with text clients because all scripting, images, and links are either disabled or not rendered.  Besides, executing scripts in an email is a huge security hole and all decent clients will prevent it.