handling links in plain text emails.

I'm sure we used to surround them in <>'s

[basenotes]

I'm just in the middle of coding some perl that sends registrants a confirmation email with a link to click.

Now, the email is plain text, and I was just going to enter the link as [..etc...] when I asked myself should I surround it in <>'s

I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly, but back in my early days of the web, I'm sure I always surrounded URLS in <>'s. Did I imagine this? Do people still do it?

(I'm not overly worried, just want to make sure I've not gone mad!)

[webboy1]

From recolection, if your sending out a plain text email then you simply write the URL. If you add tags of any sort then the email is no longer plain text.

I've sent a few marketing emails recently and we simply wrote the URL. When received, the link (in many cases) automatically highlights in the plain text email has a hyperlink.

[monkeythumpa]

The client will automatically recognize them and make them hyperlinks. One thing I have found on some common clients; you need to make sure there is a space after the URL. Don't put any punctuation after it otherwise it will get sucked into the address and 404 your ready and willing lead. Even if there is a carriage return, make sure there is a space after the url, then the return.