[92443] in North American Network Operators' Group
Re: Removal of my brain
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Joseph S D Yao)
Wed Sep 20 20:01:24 2006
Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 20:00:16 -0400
From: Joseph S D Yao <jsdy@center.osis.gov>
To: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Mail-Followup-To: Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu, nanog@nanog.org
In-Reply-To: <200609202104.k8KL4rVA016636@turing-police.cc.vt.edu>
Errors-To: owner-nanog@merit.edu
On Wed, Sep 20, 2006 at 05:04:53PM -0400, Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu wrote:
> On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 16:23:46 EDT, Todd Vierling said:
>
> > Which is just one of the reasons that the MIME type
> > "multipart/alternative" exists. Sane MUAs that wish to send HTML also
> > send a text/plain alternative segment in the same MIME stream.
>
> Vernon Schreyer made a very good point years ago that multipart/alternative
> is fundementally busticated, because there's two options:
...
I have been seeing a lot of a third option: the text part is either
empty, contains filler, or says [essentially], "Your mail reader is
broken, get one that reads HTML." These are all just wrong. And no
longer limited to SPAM or malware, lest someone suggest that.
...
> In either case, sending both plain and html versions is boneheaded and wrong. :)
A case may be made that at least it's an attempt. Some MUAs will at
least flag where they have had to elide content.
Remember that not everybody communicates/learns in the same way. Some
need the pretty pictures. Some need to avoid them, and stick to text.
--
Joe Yao
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