[Mimedefang] HTML mail

[David F. Skoll]

On Tue, 9 Dec 2003, Paul wrote:

> I vote against that (if it would come to a vote) Rather make in
> option during installation. Personally I love MD nuking HTML dupes of
> the text part. Just a waste of time and diskspace...

Anyone who sends an e-mail of type multipart/alternative like this:

	Part 1:  "Sorry, you can't see this cool e-mail"
	Part 2:  (Flashy HTML mail with all kinds of content)

is violating RFC 1521, in my opinion.  Section 7.2.3 of the RFC reads:

   Systems should recognize that the content of the various parts are
   interchangeable.  Systems should choose the "best" type based on the
   local environment and preferences, in some cases even through user
   interaction.

Note:  "the content of the various parts ARE INTERCHANGEABLE."

In my local environment, the "best" type is the plain-text type, and
if people send garbage mail like the example above, then they deserve
to have their mail discarded.  In fact, the only mail I've seen like
this is either spam, or pseudo-spam newsletters whose senders need a
smack on the head with a clue-by-four.  (I love that phrase. :-))

Regards,

David.