Re: Dual content (text/plain and text/html) on xen-devel (was Re: Linux PV domU with >1 vCPU never resumes after xl save/restore)

[George Dunlap <gwd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Aug 5, 2026 at 11:28 PM Jan Beulich <jbeulich@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

On 05.08.2026 14:15, George Dunlap wrote:
> You're asking every person who sends an email to xen-devel to remember to
> take an action before sending the mail

You're by far not the first one to be asked this; you're the first one to
have an issue with being asked, beyond some companies' IT getting in the
way. (As to the latter point, I'm already combining my observations on
xen-devel@ with those elsewhere.)

And indeed, if I were sending to a community I was new to, I would just suck it up.  I'm pushing back for two reasons: first, it wasn't an issue for the previous 18 years, so I'm trying to figure out why it's an issue now; secondly, whether it's a big barrier or not, it adds a barrier, which seems to me unnecessary.

I do feel a bit weird starting an argument about this on my second or third public post coming back.  But, the arguments put forth to support the "text/plain *only*" position don't seem to me (at the moment) to be justified; and in this community I'm in a position to push back in a way a newbie would not be.

 

> because your MUA isn't handling
> the standard properly.  Is that really reasonable?  Couldn't you tell
> Thunderbird to ignore html and only render text/plain?

Both questions go together: text/plain as the only content is (not just by
us) being asked for because that's the form known to work virtually
everywhere. Wanting your mails to be properly handled at all receiving
ends is - I think - not only reasonable, but also in your own interest?

As I said in a sibling thread, the fact stands that (as far as I can tell) Gmail is following long-established mail conventions, and Thunderbird is not.  Juergen can read my mail just fine.  *His* MUA generates somewhat mangled responses, specifically because *it* is using HTML rather than text/plain; I don't see why that should be my issue.

 -George