Set mail to Plain Text from a Forum

[GregChapman]

I have set to receive all posts from a forum as mail.

This arrives in HTML format.

I cannot find a way to set this to be sent as plain text.

Can this be done?

Greg

[Hugo <Nabble>]

Is this a limitation of your email client? Do you see broken messages in this case?

I am just trying to understand why you need this. Most email clients today accept HTML messages. So maybe you can explain your situation so that we can rethink our priorities. Thanks for the feedback.

[GregChapman]

Hugo <Nabble> wrote

Is this a limitation of your email client?

Not limitation! A Feature! :-)

I have been involved in the development of what has become nPOPuk (http://npopuk.org.uk) since 2002. I was then looking for a "fit on a floppy" portable email client. nPOPuk is based on an earlier Japanese product that was designed to run on the full range of Windows platforms and is now probably the most popular non-Microsoft email client running on WinCE and all its derivatives. I am not a handheld/palmtop user but...

As a laptop user who is frequently aboard my boat on a 9.6kbps internet connection, I find a plain text text client essential. It allows me to view all messages in my POP3 box without being forced to download multi-megabyte attachments that would otherwise block me from seeing other later important messages.

As a desktop user I find its ability to download just the initial part of a mail, very reassuring, as it protects me from virus attack.

I have recommended Nabble to friends in the UK Home Boat Builders Rally, because of previous good experience with Nabble. We are now testing your forum embedded within a blogspot account as a replacement for a mix of a Wordpress account and Yahoo mail list. (Yes, I know, it could all be done in Nabble, but I think there is some caution about putting all one's eggs in one basket!) Too many members are complaining about the difficulties they have with uploading their images to the Yahoo site and the slowness and intrusive adverts of the Yahoo site for those who only post to the list via the Yahoo site. No one is complaining about Yahoo's "Traditional" mail format, their plain text service, which also gets rid of all those horrible graphic adverts they otherwise append to your mail.

Do you see broken messages in this case?

No. I have my installation of nPOPuk set to download only the first 100 lines of any message. (You can set it to download any number from 0 - if you just want to use it as a resident mail-checker application, rather than constantly run a bloated mail client - to "All" when it will download entire messages, including all attachments) One hundred lines is usually sufficient to see all the text in a message and you can always request full download of any individual message. nPOPuk ignores any HTML attachment, even if it is small enough to have been downloaded completely within the limit set, but does give you the opportunity to load it into your browser, should it be important to view the HTML part and any images that are embedded in it.

Hopefully, that gives you the background on why having the smallest possible size for email posted from Nabble would make it still more attractive than it is and make it easier to convince people to move from the Yahoo Traditional mail service.

[GregChapman]

I am also a subscriber to the various Yahoo Lists that support NoteTab, a powerful plain text editor.

Following the recent changes that are now threatened with being rolled out in Yahoo, they too are talking of finding an alternative host. Talk there suggests Google Groups are making less than satisfactory changes to their site too.

I think there's an opportunity here, that you may wish to investigate. :-)

[Hugo <Nabble>]

Hi Greg, thanks for the detailed explanation and sorry for the delay in getting back to you. We plan to start in a few weeks our premium support forum, which will provide solutions for custom requests like yours. We usually have several requests like that every month and we have to choose which ones to implement, so we will move our priority to the premium support and listen to users from there. Here you can find a thread about this:
http://nabble-support.1.n2.nabble.com/Free-vs-Paid-Support-tp5528523p5528523.html

I hope you can join that forum and post your request to the Nabble team. We will find a solution for you. Please let me know what you think.

[GregChapman]

Thanks for the response.

I fear that the boat building group for whom I posted the question for prides itself on bucking the English tendency, when three people gather together, of emerging from the meeting with titles of Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. We have no funds at all, not even someone authorised to collect any!

I do understand your need to create an income stream, but fear that our group is not part of the market you are pitching at with your current plan. I guess we'll have to remain, part of your bug hunting team and grateful for being allowed to be your product testers. Thanks for that. You do have a good product. May you be able to continue to develop it.

[Hugo <Nabble>]

Thanks for the feedback. The free support forum will continue to exist and we will keep an eye on it. Besides that, if someone in the premium support forum asks for what you need, all users will be able to use that feature, including non-premium users.