[okfn-help] Beautifying the OKF newsletter (sent out via mailman)?

Thu Nov 10 17:10:02 UTC 2011

Hi all,

I agree with Jonathan that sending a newsletter that just consists of a
link to a URL will make it less likely people will look at the content we
want to get across (although I have no empirical evidence to back this
up!). I also agree that we want to avoid writing two newsletters.

It would be nice to do some very simple 'beautifying' things like adding
some pics. For those who haven't used the blog or website in a long time
who receive the newsletter it gives them a little visual taster of what's
been going on. In which case a fairly simple HTML email would do the trick,
and we'd be able to use our current system.

It would also be nice to be able to see the click through rates of the
newsletters we send out, so we can tailor the newsletter according to the
responses from those who receive it. In order to get these stats we'd need
a new newsletter mail system, right?

S

On Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 12:18 AM, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 8, 2011 at 11:43 PM, Everton Zanella Alvarenga
> <everton137 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 2011/11/8 Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org>:> I definitely agree
> > that we don't want to end up making two copies of> the newsletter if
> > we can help it.
> > If a newsletter consists of a collection of "Title" <link> +
> > "Abstract" (possibly + "Images)" beautifully organized in a HTML page,
> > wouldn't be easy to have a plain text the HTML version just extracting
> > its collection of "Title" <link> + "Abstract"?
> >
> > Which software is OKFn using to send the newsletters?
>
> We're just using ordinary email clients via a mailing list like the
> one we're writing on (mailman). ;-)
>
> > I am not sure if accessibility is also an issue here - maybe a simple
> > plain text is easier to blind people?
>
> Not sure - does anyone have experience of this?
>
> >> Before the days of HTML being ubiquitous on mail clients, what did>
> people do? Is there some way of displaying a note saying "if you don't>
> have HTML in your browser, you can view this newsletter by going here>
> [link]"?
> >
> > I began to read emails using Pine. Sometimes I simply couldn't view
> > HTML emails. But in some cases there was a link: if you cannot see
> > this email, click here.
>
> Exactly! That is what we want. Do you know how we could do this? (Or
> search for it?)
>
> > 2011/11/8 Nils Toedtmann <nils.toedtmann at okfn.org>:
> >
> >> PS: I never understood why newsletter mails are not just one-liners
> >> saying "Visit http://example.com/news to read our latest news letter."
> >> You can't reply to them anyway, so no need for a body to quote! Also
> >> easier to share on social media.
> >
> > I always prefer to read a Web page than a beautiful page on a Web mail
> > or my email client. For me titles + abstracts would be fine. Just one
> > line would force me to click, but it's possible not to be interested
> > on a particular collection of news. But if there is something I'd like
> > to read more, I just click the link and go to the fancy page.
>
> If it is in the body of the email I think it makes it more likely that
> people will read it. I suspect that if you *have* to click on the
> link, lots of people will just archive / file / delete it without
> reading. ;-(
>
> --
> Jonathan Gray
>
> Community Coordinator
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://www.okfn.org
>
> http://twitter.com/jwyg
>
> _______________________________________________
> okfn-help mailing list
> okfn-help at lists.okfn.org
> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/okfn-help
>

-- 
Sam Leon
Community Coordinator
Open Knowledge Foundation
http://okfn.org/
Skype: samedleon
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