Plain-text email

[John Cowan]

On Tue, Nov 3, 2020 at 10:31 PM Jordan <jordan at crowesnest.io> wrote:


> Hope all is having a good day/night. I've noticed several emails on the
> mailing lists are using html. Is there prehaps a suggestion in the
> mailing list "rules" for using plain-text, so that everyone may be able
> to read the emails?
>

After almost three decades of preaching and practicing the "plain text
only, no more than 80 columns, no top-posting EVAR" gospel of email, I have
concluded that it is now obsolete.

1) A sender that can *only* send text/html should definitely be off limits
still.  But one that sends the message in both text/html and text/plain (in
a multipart/alternative wrapper) is legitimate.  If the receiver's client
cannot cope with multipart/alternative and pull the text/plain version out
of it, the receiver really does need a new client at this point.  For
example, if I send a Gmail email (which has both formats) to myself at a
different account and read it with Mutt, I see the plain text properly.

2) If the receiver's window to read mail is less than 80
columns,
then the mail will look something like this, which is very
difficult to
read, especially when there is a lot of it.

3) Top-posting is still controversial, but I'll do it if I am making a
completely general and short reply, like "Can you give me more details?"



John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
"Hacking is the true football."  --F.W. Campbell (1863) in response to a
successful attempt to ban shin-kicking from soccer.  Today, it's biting.
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