Talk:Media type

Any non-W3C source for the "Internet media type" designation?
In the Wikipedia article, it says "MIME also was defined in 1992 by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)", but I read the RFC 2046 document, which is all about MIME, also linked to from this article and it is dated November 1996. What is the explanation to this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Skcin7 (talk • contribs) 13:59, 30 June 2011 (UTC)

I've heard MIME types called "media types" a lot, and they're certainly used on the Internet, but apart from the W3C document cited in the heading, I've rarely seen them referred to by the triplet "Internet media type". In fact, "Media type" is a link to a section within the "MIME" article.

Is there a reason this article shouldn't be simply "Media type"? --Alvestrand (talk) 07:50, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

I've been working with the web and web-relate programming for years. I've never heard them called 'Internet Media Types'. Usually 'MIME types' and occasionally 'content types'. The acronym 'MIME' is often spelt 'mime' and seems to largely have lost its association with its original meaning. 81.157.195.222 (talk) 14:19, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
 * No. Whatever the origin of this misunderstanding, it may have been made worse by poor phrasing in section 1.1 of RFC 5147, which begins Internet Media Types (often referred to "MIME types")... before continuing to only use the name media types. An unambiguous phrasing would have been Media types on the internet.... This article should have been named "Media type" since the beginning. I've moved it. —  Scott  •  talk  13:31, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

I came across this article and got really confused that it's called "Media type" instead of "Mime type". While I've heard it referred to as "content types" (not as much as "mime type" though), I've never heard "media types". I understand why the article would be called "media type" since that is, nowadays, the official name, but I don't get the claim that "they became known as media types when it became apparent that their usage had expanded to protocols which did not relate specifically to mail." Google Trends suggests that "mime type" is the more popular search term while a quick Stack Overflow search shows that "media type" is used a little more than "mime type", but not siginificantly. This page should start with "a media type, MIME type or mime type" or something similar. TotempaaltJ (talk) 10:25, 29 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Hi
 * I agree with most of what you say, especially the last sentence. However, "mime" is a misspelling. It must not appear at all. (Just how many times have I seen people writing "nsa", "usa" and "linux"? Lots.) Also, Google Trends is case-insensitive!
 * Best regards,
 * Codename Lisa (talk) 14:53, 29 December 2015 (UTC)

List
"Some of the more notable media types used on the Web are listed below"

What exactly makes these types rather than any others notable? Also vnd, x and x-pkcs are not "types", they are subtype prefixes. This list needs some cleanup. OrangeDog (τ • ε) 10:57, 10 August 2011 (UTC)

Rationale of type, subtype?
The article needs a better explanation of the rationale by which file formats are assigned to types and subtypes. For instance, why is ogg both  and  ? Related questions: what is the rationale of placing a format under the  type? It seems that type application serves as a catch-all...

Similarly, the given rationale of   seems equally suspect. Just because a .csv, .xml, or .vcard file is written in a text format does not mean that it a human can read it. My reading of RFC 2046 Sec 3 suggests that XML, CSV and vcard never should have been placed under  (emphasis mine). (1)  text -- textual information. The subtype "plain" in         particular indicates plain text containing no          formatting commands or directives of any sort. Plain text is intended to be displayed "as-is". No special software is required to get the full meaning of the text, aside from support for the indicated character set. Other subtypes are to be used for enriched text in         forms where application software may enhance the appearance of the text, but such software must not be required in order to get the general idea of the content. Possible subtypes of "text" thus include any word processor format that can be read without resorting to software that understands the format. In         particular, formats that employ embeddded binary formatting information are not considered directly readable. A very simple and portable subtype, "richtext", was defined in RFC 1341, with a further revision in RFC 1896 under the name "enriched".

It would be great if anyone could help. I don't feel qualified to write such a rationale. 140.180.189.60 (talk) 21:28, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

audio/wav
The mime type audio/wav isn't listed, but is commonly used. Deprecated usage? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.171.92.2 (talk) 15:26, 23 December 2013 (UTC)

Recommend removing list of types
As is noted at the top of the section, a complete list of internet media types is available directly from the source: http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml

However, in the article, after this mention, there is a partial list of types. This list is incomplete and could be potentially incorrect if at some point in time a type is depreciated. I see no reason why "some" media types should be listed here. Recommend removing the list and directing people to Iana.org to view the up-to-date and complete list if they wish to get that data. David Condrey  log talk  01:57, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
 * Just a note here that you did, and that your reasoning was sound. —  Scott  •  talk  13:37, 31 August 2015 (UTC)

Mergers Proposed
Request received to merge articles: MIME, Mailcap, and Internet media type into Media type; dated July 2015; discussions here. GenQuest "Talk to Me"
 * No rationale given. — Preceding unsigned comment added by GenQuest (talk • contribs) 16:07, 22 December 2015‎ (UTC)
 * Hi. Actually, a rationale is given. It reads: "Talk:MIME". (Copied and pasted; underscores were there already.)
 * Best regards,
 * Codename Lisa (talk) 15:53, 28 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Oppose merging MIME with media type; the nominator has clearly confused "MIME" with "MIME type". Support merging mailcap with media type; "mailcap" can be merged into "media type" because their scopes are similar and "mailcap" has dubious notability status. WP:SIZERULE encourages the merger. Best regards, Codename Lisa (talk) 16:07, 28 December 2015 (UTC)


 * Oppose merging MIME with media type and Support merging mailcap with media type, per Codename Lisa. Yes, the full MIME specification and MIME type are different things. With respect to MIME config files, mime.types maps file extensions to mime types and mailcap maps mime types to external commands or programs. The mailcap format is specified in RFC 1524 (MIME configuration), Appendix A and B, so it makes sense to discuss mailcap and mime types in the same article. --Mark viking (talk) 23:06, 28 January 2016 (UTC)

Pronunciation
Can we add pronunciation of MIME Type audio/phonetic? Shimmy (talk) 10:11, 10 December 2017 (UTC)

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