Empty messages (was Re: Any computer, anywhere?)

Mon Dec 9 00:14:47 UTC 2013

On 13-12-08 04:59 PM, Larry Sheldon wrote:
> On 12/8/2013 8:13 AM, Michael Brown wrote:
>>
>
> I've been getting several of these (empty messages) from different 
> people and on different subjects but always on the NANOG list.
>
> Secret messages?  Or is NSA sucking too hard?
>
This I can solidly attribute (at least in my case) to the fact that 
BlackBerry 10 devices only send emails with a text/html part and no 
text/plain part.

I've seen this cause problems in a few places - notably in services that 
automatically parse emails for replying to forums/chat/etc. (Discourse & 
kato.im and now the nanog list which strips text/html). Somewhere I have 
a nice little python snippet I wrote for extracting text out of the html.

It's convenient when you're *expecting* it (you can use the html div 
information to separate out the actual reply vs. the signature vs. the 
quoted text) but when you're expecting to be able to use text/plain, 
it's just not there.

(arguments over who is being a worse Internetizen - BB for not having 
text/plain or Mailman/Mimedel for stripping out text/html when there's 
no text/plain are not included in this :D )

M.

-- 
Michael Brown            | The true sysadmin does not adjust his behaviour
Systems Administrator    | to fit the machine.  He adjusts the machine
michael at supermathie.net  | until it behaves properly.  With a hammer,
                          | if necessary.  - Brian