Stop Sending Me Your Errors

A reader rails against email senders who misuse multipart/alternative to deliver error messages like "Plain text version not available" instead of actual plain-text content. The author explains how this breaks email clients that prefer plain text, offers scenarios where users are harmed, and argues that such errors are useless and even counterproductive. The solution: stop sending non-alternative plain-text parts, which also helps avoid spam filters.

If your email system cannot generate a useful text/plain version of the email, then it doesn't help anyone to tell them that.

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2026-08-05