Sadly many people on HN do exactly this, as seen in comments like
"I don't use a phone and don't have a phone number, so I can't pass the anti-spam check of xx website. It is their fault"
"Why do we need a UI for this? Command line is much better than this"
"Why do we need to do this? I have been installing applications by compiling from source since 199x and it has worked perfectly fine for me."
PS. I assume all your github readme.md are all in full-blown HTML sprinkled with tracking links? :P
That's the thing - I do get lots of them. In the age of html+plain and abuse of tracking (because it's so easy to hide with html), plain text version is just littered with this nonsense...
For example I just got notification from allegro.pl (shopping platform) and all links have that:
`?utm_source=notification&utm_medium=cartWithPayment&utm_campaign=cef…35-c856-…-…-687c…cdd6&tr_n=buyer-cart&tr_id=f09…d40-…-…-…-05b0…7126-…__f09d2e80-…-…-…-05b0ee617126-…&tr_d=allegro.pl&tr_c=purchase-details&tr_s=LM…sCz>`
As for attachments - obvious exaggeration to dismiss actual issue: bravo…
> You want to argue that plain text is better, but your arguments are that plain tex, are better for you. Don't make the mistake to assume that your specific experience is a workable average.
Don't assume that someone using HTML actually do it conciously or is glad to receive it in that form because average user doesn't complain about it
> As for attachments - obvious exaggeration to dismiss actual issue: bravo…
No, the issue is that you can't tell everyone to "just upload the picture somewhere and put the link in the middle", that's unreasonable. That is the issue. HTML solves an issue.
> Don't assume that someone using HTML actually do it conciously or is glad to receive it in that form because average user doesn't complain about it
Average users want formatting. Plain text doesn't provide it. HTML for emails sucks, but plain text isn't a solution to that.
I'm glad that you never ever received any link to some derivation of st.es.rui.tracking/bzzz/pfrrrrt?campaign=hn that hide the real link, but in the real world, that's how tracking is done. Plain text doesn't prevent anything.
> not sure if needed, besides you can attach images to plain text (though not inlining) or click-able links to external sources (at exact place)
For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem. From Windows or Mac, this FTP account could be accessed through built-in software.
You want to argue that plain text is better, but your arguments are that plain tex, are better for you. Don't make the mistake to assume that your specific experience is a workable average.