User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20061201 Firefox/2.0.0.6 (Ubuntu-feisty) Build Identifier: version 2.0.0.6 (20070803) A forward: I have noticed this behavior in previous releases of the software, though I didn't have the time to file a detailed enough bug report at the time to be useful. While this bug has in the past not been an important one for me, some of the changes of the way that I have to communicate with people in certain environments have increases the severity of this bug at least in my own personal world-view. Background: I have my Thunderbird configured to permit outgoing mail to be sent in whatever format I choose, and not to confirm or ask. I also have HTML mail disabled for all accounts with the exception of one, which is the account that I use for Axia College newsgroup forums. The way that Axia works, they require two things: Mail/posts must use HTML, and they must be sent in ISO-8859-1. This is broken, I know, but this is the way that it is. My settings for the newsgroup account in question enable HTML composition. My settings for the profile as a whole are to simply let me know better than the software; I have my accounts properly configured to behave just as they are supposed to do so (plain-text for everything save for this one account, in other words). What I am doing: Composing an HTML message for this newsgroup account, without any non-ISO-8859-1 characters. What I expect: I expect Thunderbird to send the message with HTML formatting intact. My settings are to just send the HTML message (e.g., not HTML+Text, because the server chokes on MIME; again, I know that's broken, but there is a preference in Thunderbird that is supposed to enable me to work around this...). When I am finished composing the message, I either click on the button to send it, or I press Ctrl+Enter to send the message. The message goes out as HTML and all is happy. What actually happens: I compose a message to be sent through this newsgroup server. When I am finished composing the message, I either click on the button to send it, or I press Ctrl+Enter to send the message. If I click the button, I get a dialog asking if I want the message sent as Text, HTML+Text, or HTML. If I press Ctrl+Enter, I get nothing, and the message gets sent as a regular (e.g., non-MIME) message in plain text format. My settings are configured to prevent this exact thing from happening, however. Possibly related behavior: Sometimes, when I click a mailto: link from my web browser, and my default mail account is selected, it wants to send the message as HTML. Subsequent attempts to create a new message will present me with HTML formatting options, even on my mail accounts that are configured to *not* use HTML mail. I am sure that this should be a separate issue, and I need more data before I can submit it, but it might also be related to this issue in some way. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Compose a new HTML message in an account configured for such. 2. Send the message using either the Send button or Ctrl+Enter. One yields a prompt, and the other yields a plain-text message sent. Actual Results: Check the message source in the Sent folder, or in the case of a NG, refresh the messages in the newsgroup and view its source. Mail goes out as text/plain, word wrapped, without the expected HTML formatting. Expected Results: It should have followed my settings, per Details. It would seem that the only reliable way to handle message in TB is to have an all-text or all-HTML set of settings for all of the accounts that it handles. Before I had a requirement to have HTML messages in use, I never had a problem with Thunderbird randomly deciding it was time to use HTML for a message, nor did I obviously have the problem of a message that should have been HTML going out as plain text. I have also never heard of anyone using Thunderbird with pure HTML-only settings having issues with mail going out as plain text, either. I cannot test that configuration, though, because HTML mail is inappropriate in every other place that I communicate.

forgot to mark the version # in the field

Confirming on TB 2.0.0.15pre. I believe this is newsgroup-specific, but have not tested in detail.

It's not exactly newsgroup-specific, but you're more likely to fall into the trap, and certain not to find a way out, with newsgroups, since you can't say that they prefer HTML in the addressbook like you can with mail. The global Send Options choice only actually applies when we, in our infinite wisdom, don't think we can silently convert your HTML to text without you noticing. The only way I know of that you can work around it when the message body is just text is to choose HTML from the Compose window's Options - Format menu (every time). There, we'll listen to you no matter what's in the body of the message.

(In reply to Michael Trausch from comment #0) > What actually happens: > I compose a message to be sent through this newsgroup server. > When I am finished composing the message, > I either click on the button to send it, or I press Ctrl+Enter to send the message. > If I click the button, I get a dialog asking if I want the message sent as Text, HTML+Text, or HTML. As I wrote in Bug 1210244 Comment #5, this is same behavior as one in latest Thunderbird 38.2.0. (a) When used Identity for news posting is Identity of News account in Tb, if news posting is composed in HTML mode, Tb always Asks for delivery format. (b) When used Identity is Identity of Email account in Tb, if newsgroup is involved in recipients(Newsgrope:, Follouo-To;), Tb rejects because this is Email account. I don't know about (b) in old Tb, old Mozilla, SeaMonkey, but (a) is perhaps inherited from Mozilla MailNews(maybe from Netscape Messenger). This is probably in order to avoid "Text post vs. HTML post War in News World". Why this bug for news posting can be dup of Bug 414299 about "<tt> nd friends"? Re-opening for ease of tracking. I think there are 3 options. 1. Close as INVALID : This is design. Expectation is wrong. 2. Close as WONTFIX with Severity=Enhancement : This is current design. There is no plan to change. 3. Keep open with Severity=Enhancement : My request is valid. Thunderbird should support it.

FYI. Following is code for News. Because code is sorted out by bug 970118 in 2014, it's readable/understandable. "Rejection if Email accout" is perhaps done in UI code before this step. If NewsGroup is contained in recipients, and if it's composed in HTML mode, send format is Asked. > http://mxr.mozilla.org/comm-central/source/mailnews/compose/src/nsMsgCompose.cpp#4879 > 4879 nsMsgCompose::DetermineHTMLAction(int32_t aConvertible, int32_t *result) > 4886 // Right now, we don't have logic for newsgroups for intelligent send > 4887 // preferences. Therefore, bail out early and save us a lot of work if there > 4888 // are newsgroups. > 4889 if (!newsgroups.IsEmpty()) > 4890 { > 4891 *result = nsIMsgCompSendFormat::AskUser; > 4892 return NS_OK; > 4893 }

Now that we got some movement in this area for email messages in bugs like bug 136502, we could do something about newsgroup recipients too. Yes, currently if message is composed in HTML and Options->delivery format is set to "autodetect", then for newsgroups we always ask (for mail we do some dances to check what the recipients prefer via their AB cards). We could probably send as plain text if message is convertible (pretend all newsgroups prefer Plain). Yes, that is exactly NOT what the reporter wants. He wants to force HTML-only in all cases for that particular newsgroup (or all). Could we observe the pref being added in bug 136502 to decide this case?