HTML Email Boilerplate • Hacker News Board

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#81

Post by encoderer » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 7:50 PM UTC

ItsTrueYouKnow wrote: post #13

Please don't send HTML email, there is almost never a scenario when it is necessary. All it does is create larger emails, have redundant information (most HTML emails also send a plain text counterpart), make reading email more difficult (especially if you are using a terminal mail client or are visually impaired), and allow for obnoxious email styling. HTML Email, just say NO.

Every one of your posts in this thread -- every single reply -- seems entirely shortsighted.

It's very obvious you've never used an opt-in email list to build and grow a commercial business.

You think Groupon (and the ilk), or Newegg, etc, would see the huge returns from email they do if they were sending out plaintext?

The only thing that really bothers me about your posts, though, is that you try to say things with such a tone of authority. But you just don't know what you're talking about.

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#82

Post by patrickaljord » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 7:52 PM UTC

yock wrote: post #28

Please get rid of your browser evangelism, no matter how clever it might be. I know very well that I shouldn't be using Internet Explorer. If I had any choice in the matter, I wouldn't

> If I had any choice in the matter, I wouldn't

I live in Peru, most people still use IE out of ignorance here, not because they can't. Browser evangelism is sure useless to an HN reader but it's very needed for common users and I encourage it very much.

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#83

Post by esdott » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 7:58 PM UTC

hrabago wrote: post #72

autarch wrote: post #64

This looks great, but the license includes the Creative Commons non-commercial clause, which basically makes it unusable, since it's not compatible with open or closed source usage! I wrote the author a note via Github asking him to consider changing the license.

There's a Feedback link right there on the page as well. I used that to echo this feedback.

I just updated the license to the MIT license (should have just used that from the start).

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#84

Post by ez77 » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 8:02 PM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #73

davidcollantes wrote: post #7

HTML and email are two things that do not go together well(IMHO). I prefer plain text.

Out of interest - do you paint/decorate the walls in your home. Do you wear coloured (ie dyed) clothing? Do you have a business card that has more than plain-text on it? When you return from a holiday and are telling friends about it, do you hand them a type written note that describes what other people would normally put in a photo? Do you eschew the use of typographical techniques that aid reading, both speed and c…

Do you eschew the use of typographical techniques that aid reading, both speed and comprehension, such as emboldening, headings, breaks, italics, font and colour changes?

It is interesting to note that some of the most important works produced by mankind can be reproduced in essence without these aids [1]. Moreover, these well-meant aids are perceived as undue distractions and hence disabled by many [2], most of which are not die-hard plain-text users.

[1] http://www.gutenberg.org/

[2] https://www.readability.com/

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#85

Post by NHQ » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 8:30 PM UTC

I am surprised that gmail is such a small player.

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#86

Post by st0p » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 8:57 PM UTC

I'm really not understanding all the hate against HTML email. To me it seems like saying: "Ascii text is enough, who needs nicely designed word documents or websites"

Also, all our communications (website, snail-mail letters) use our corporate branding. So why not use it in our emails?

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#87

Post by SeanLuke » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 10:33 PM UTC

hessenwolf wrote: post #48

Kwpolska wrote: post #46

XHTML sucks. Transitional does even more. So does HTML mail. Use plaintext for god's sake.

I'll just pop upstairs to tell my bosses and upper managers that their waterfall charts of PnL for the quarter will be arriving as ascii art.

MIME handles inline attachments with aplomb. What does this have to do with HTML?

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#88

Post by eli » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 10:50 PM UTC

benatkin wrote: post #2

I'm not sure having an email be 900px wide (the table has 3 300px wide cells) is a good idea. Wouldn't that get a horizontal scrollbar on the iPad no matter the orientation? When it's horizontal there's a sidebar; when it's vertical it's only 768px wide.

Recent versions of Outlook put the message to the right of the message list. I'm pretty sure you'll get terrible horizontal scrollbars on a 900px wide message.

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#89

Post by eli » Tue, Jun 07, 2011, 10:55 PM UTC

patrickaljord wrote: post #82

yock wrote: post #28

Please get rid of your browser evangelism, no matter how clever it might be. I know very well that I shouldn't be using Internet Explorer. If I had any choice in the matter, I wouldn't

> If I had any choice in the matter, I wouldn't I live in Peru, most people still use IE out of ignorance here, not because they can't. Browser evangelism is sure useless to an HN reader but it's very needed for common users and I encourage it very much.

Telling people they're using a crappy browser is a service. Preventing them from using your site is a disservice.

Re: HTML Email Boilerplate

#90

Post by barrkel » Wed, Jun 08, 2011, 1:27 AM UTC

I'm puzzled as to why this is upvoted so highly. It's just a very wide website with a picture and some code on it. "Boilerplate" to me means the legalese at the bottom mandated by corporate lawyers, but I don't see much in the way of boilerplate here.

Is it a template for emails that look like the website? I'd ignore any emails that look like this website, but then I'd never see them, as I don't have HTML email enabled by default, for lots of reasons.