Something about Chrome and KDE Wallet Service

[Duncan]

Kevin Krammer posted on Thu, 13 Dec 2012 10:34:56 +0100 as excerpted:

> On Thursday, 2012-12-13, Duncan wrote:
> 
>> First, a quick request.  Please refrain from posting HTML to the kde
>> lists[.]  Plain text is good. =:^)
> 
> This could be a problem of your setup. The mail of Burgess Wong contains
> both a plain text version and a HTML version (multipart/mixed).
> 
> This allows the recipient's mail reader to display whatever its user
> prefers, in my case the plain text version. Seems your mail reader
> thinks you prefer the HTML version.

My client is actually showing both, as text, one after the other (without 
a separator, not even so much as a line feed, so the plain text sig is 
immediately followed on the same line by the opening html tag, which I'd 
call a bug, but...).  That means it's showing the raw/ugly HTML code, but 
I do see all text parts, which can be critical.  (I've seen buggy mail 
composers that send a blank "plain text" part, fooling many clients that 
display only one into displaying a blank post until the HTML or raw-text 
view is chosen.  That problem's avoided if all text parts are displayed.)

If it's worth the bother both to post and to ask others to read, I 
believe it's worth sending in plain text.  If it has to be dressed up in 
HTML, that's an indication that the sender themselves didn't think the 
message was worth the trouble in plain text -- they had to dress it up in 
fancy HTML to make it look presentable.  Of course that's assuming 
they're not deliberately taking advantage of the HTML to try to avoid the 
anti-spam filters (some spammers hide text intended to fool the anti-spam-
filters in HTML sections not normally shown to the reader) or to 
propagate spyware (webbugs being a rather common technique) or malware.  
It also ignores those who simply aren't aware, but that's why I make the 
request, as I've found many quickly comply once they're made aware of the 
issue.

Thus, if I'm already attempting to answer their question and the message 
text wasn't plain text only, I address both the plain-text/html point, 
and the question.  (I make it a point not to reply ONLY to mention the 
HTML.  If I don't believe I might have something potentially helpful in 
response to their question, I don't reply at all), I do try to make the 
request for plain text only.  They're always free to ignore it, of 
course, just as I'm always free to killfile them if I find they are doing 
so[1].  But most of the time people simply weren't aware, and once 
they're asked and thus are made aware, they're happy to switch. =:^)

---
[1] I've been known to compare posting in HTML to sliming one's hand with 
snot, then offering to shake someone's hand with it.  It's unsanitary, 
and just because the other person happens to be wearing metaphorical 
gloves in the form of a client that doesn't actually act on the HTML, 
doesn't make the act any less offensive; neither does society's 
unfortunate acceptance thereof, tho it does mean it's not necessarily 
being intentionally rude.  But once the request has been made and the 
person becomes aware of their sliming-n-shaking behavior, continuing it 
does mean I take further protective measures, including killfiling, 
should it come to that.  Fortunately it very seldom does.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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