Dave McGuire put forth on 8/27/2010 10:43 PM:
If this change is made, I for one will ditch this list and just rely on searching the archives. I get enough HTML garbage from clueless morons all day long, I don't need more of it from a supposedly clueful group.
I use 'mailnews.display.prefer_plaintext;true' and I never see HTML formatted emails. Once this feature started working reliably (years ago) in Thunderbird, I stopped posting complaints such as yours to the lists I participate in. At one point I was a text-only zealot like you. MUA technology solved the problem for me. You might try it. :)
There will be no HTML everywhere conversion in the future. The internet and the web are both built upon RFCs. There is even an RFC defining the format of RFCs. They are to be plain text only, formatted with exactly x columns and rows per page, fixed 10 point type, courier--ASCII. If the HTML zealots ever attempt an overthrow of the net, the Sun will go supernova and destroy the Earth, and there will be no one left to worry about it. So feel safe in knowing that text only will survive forever in many corners of the web, and the world. :)
-- Stan