[sylpheed:36743] Re: Fw: Re: Sylpheed not showing all attachments in the list below the headers

[Javier]

On Fri, 17 Aug 2018 01:56:30 -0400
Michael Shell <list1 at michaelshell.org> wrote:

> > If there is something confusing, is when you receive a multipart
> > message with plain+html (sadly most of the mails nowadays) that can
> > "trick" you and make you think that there is nothing and the
> > attachment is just the html part, but I myself, awalys check
> > attachments, just in case when I receive an plain+html mail.
> 
> So, you are saying that a plain text part is present, but does not have
> the actual message, even though it may be completely empty (or may only
> have some extraneous/other info in it) and the HTML part contains the
> important part of the message. 
> 
> Furthermore, under
> Configuration->Common Preferences->Display->Message
> "Prefer HTML in multipart/alternative for display"
> is *not* selected in your case - that the plain text portion is to be
> preferred. 
> 
> Do I understand the scenario correctly?

Hi,

what I was trying to say in my paragraph is that when a multipart
mail is received, Sylpheed displays "hints" to the user telling that
there are attchments, even though the mail may consist in just a
plain text part (empty or not) or the html version counterpart (empty
or not, after all a multipart doesn't necessarily need to have
content).

So, if someone gets used to say, "nah, the attachment, is just the
(html|plain) version" (depending on your told settings), it can be
confusing, the user tricks himself actually, "misleading" from the
information given by Sylpheed (look, there is an attachment!) and the
decisions by the user.

If fact, if we think in an extreme scenario, someone not tech savvy
coming from old Outlook like mail client, that didn't tell the user
that there was a counterpart to the displayed version of the mail (in
a multipart mail), when comes to Sylpheed like mail clients could
say, "oh god, again, stop telling me there are attachments when "they
aren't"", and stop checking attachments.

And, in the end, is up to the user to check attachments. In some way,
and believe me, I'm not trying to blame you at all, you are acting
like this. Sylhpeed is telling you that there are attachments but, as
inline, are at the bottom and also you don't check the mail
attachments, so you are missing things. Just in case, check ;)
Really, I'm not trying to blame you or users acting like you, because
I have done too!, is that, if a mail client is telling there is
something happening, maybe is a good idea to check it. Maybe ;)

I may agree with you that it won't be bad idea to display the
attachment indicator at the top, as even when set to prefer HTML
viewing, it is "attached" inline to the viewer window, but, is just
my opinion, is a good idea to always check attachments if a
(whichever) mail client tell us there are, just in case.

About the spam mail thing (I didn't quote here) I'm so dumb that I
even check them on known spam mails, but also the source. But is just
me, I like security and I check eeeeeverything.


Sorry for this "damn" long mail and I hope you don't feel attacked as
it wasn't my intention. I'm not against adding such feature and I was
telling my point of view on this matter and why I don't feel
necessary. Even though, I understand you.

Regards.

P.S.: and really sorry for any mistakes as english is not my mother
tongue.