There are two main types of emails on the internet: plaintext and HTML. - The former is strongly preferred, but often isn't set up by default. - We'll get you set up right. + Many people, particularly in technical communities, strongly prefer or + even require the use of plain text email from participants. However, your + mail client may not have it set up by default. We'll help you get it + configured, and introduce you to the norms and conventions of plain text + email.
- In addition to training you that HTML emails are the norm, many harmful - mail clients may have trained you with other bad habits. Here are some - tips to unlearn them: + A few notes on the subject of plain text email ettiquite:
When you reply to an email, many email clients will include a quoted - version of the message you're replying to beneath the text of your reply. - This leads to long email threads containing the entire history of the - discussion in an increasingly long and nested footer on every email. This - is called "top posting" and is strongly discouraged. + version of the entire message that you are responding to beneath your + reply. This leads to long email threads which contain the entire history + of the discussion in an increasingly long trailer on every email. This is + called "top posting", and it's strongly frowned upon by many users of + plain text email.
- Though some clients would have you believe otherwise, you can edit the - quoted version of the message you're replying to, and you're encouraged - to. Feel free to trim it down, cutting out any extra text which isn't - directly relevant to your reply - or removing it entirely. Write anything - you have to say underneath the quote it pertains to. + Plain text email makes it easier to incorporate the original text into + your reply much more meaningfully. Consider these two examples:
-Yes, that sounds good. + +Jim said on 2019-03-23 at 11:02 PM: +> Are you okay with maroon? +> +> Tim said on 2019-03-23 at 10:43 PM: +>> Do we know what color we should use for the background? +>> +>>> Jim said on 2019-03-23 at 10:30 PM: +>>> Is there anything left to do on the site?+
+ This email uses top-posting, and this approach is discouraged. A better + approach might look more like this: +
+Jim said on 2019-03-23 at 11:02 PM: +> Are you okay with maroon? + +Yes, that sounds good.+
+ You can also edit the original email more, quoting it several times to + make it clear what points you are responding to, like so: +
+Hey Drew, + +Can you look into the bug which is causing 2.34 clients to disconnect +immediately? I think this is related to the timeouts change last week. + +Also, your fix to the queueing bug is confirmed for the next release, +thanks!+
Hey Sarah, I can look into that for sure. + +> I think this is related to the timeouts change last week. + +I'm not so sure. I think reducing the timeouts would *improve* this issue, +if anything. I'll look into it. + +> Also, your fix to the queueing bug is confirmed for the next release, +> thanks! + +Sweet! Happy to help.+
As the old joke goes...
+- Email writers are encouraged to wrap their text at 72 columns by inserting - a newline and resuming your writing on the following line. The - recommended clients will do this for - you, as well as any client shown above with "Wraps text or uses - format=flowed" checked. Don't worry about re-wrapping the quoted parts of - message you're replying to unless you want to. If your client doesn't do - this for you, it can easily be the most frustrating part of being a good - email netizen, but it's very much appreciated by recipients. + Plain text emails are generally encouraged to be wrapped at 72 columns, + by inserting a newline and resuming the content on the next line. This is + encouraged to make email more comfortable to read and quote in many of + the contexts where technical users may encounter it, such as terminal + emulators. Of course, it's far too annoying to do this manually as you + write — the recommended clients + will do this for you, as well as any client shown above with "Wraps text + or uses format=flowed".
+ Many phishing emails have also taken the step of carefully replicating + the visual style of an email you might trust, such as the appearance of a + PayPal email. With plain text, it's much more difficult to trick you like + this. +
Virtually all HTML emails sent by marketers include identifiers in links @@ -569,6 +615,14 @@ more likely to influence your buying habits. HTML emails are good for marketers and bad for you.
++ HTML emails open up a lot of possibilities which are exploited by + spammers to circumvent spam filters, such as making large amounts of text + invisible, using hidden elements, and so on. Many people discard HTML + emails (particularly mailing lists) on the simple basis that it + dramatically reduces the amount of spam emails they receive. +
HTML is an extremely large and complicated set of specifications designed @@ -624,12 +678,6 @@ emphasis. You can still communicate your point effectively without bringing along all of the bad things HTML emails come with.
-- In short, HTML emails are a security nightmare, are mostly used for - advertising to you and tracking you, are less accessible for many users, - and don't offer anything especially great for it. -
"But if plaintext is so good, why is this page written in HTML?"
- This is a reference document, not an email, you twit.
+ This is a reference document, not an email!
- This site is under a MIT license. "Plaintext Certified" graphic by Jens,