Opscend · marcel@opscend.net · sandbox

Writing in the shell

Three real bodies, each shown twice — the source to paste, and what it looks like once the shell has it. Nothing here has been sent.

How to use one

  1. Open the blank and view source.
  2. Copy a specimen below and paste it between the two ▼▲ markers in the well.
  3. Send. Do not add a sign-off — the shell signs, and two is worse than one.

⚠️ These are all correspondence: a reply, a thread, someone you already know. No opt-out, which is right for that and illegal for cold mail. Writing to a stranger means purpose=outreach, which needs a postal address and a working opt-out — neither exists yet.

Specimen

A plain note

The common case, and the one to copy first. Three short paragraphs, no formatting, nothing clever.

Paste this
<p>Aaron,</p>

<p>Thursday morning got eaten by a deploy. Can we move to 2pm the same day? Same link.</p>

<p>If that does not work, throw me two times that do and I will take whichever.</p>

Every line is a <p>. That is the whole trick — the well handles the rest.

Subject: Thursdayopen ↗

Specimen

Everything the well styles

Not an email to send — a type specimen. Use it to see the scale before you write real copy, then delete what you do not need.

Paste this
<h2>Where the reporting stands</h2>

<p>Short version: the August numbers are in and the sourcing note at the bottom is
the only thing that needs a decision from you.</p>

<h3>What moved</h3>

<ul>
  <li>Lead volume up 31%, third month running</li>
  <li>Cost per booked call down to $41.20</li>
  <li>Two listings live, both Schaumburg</li>
</ul>

<p>The full breakdown is in <a href="https://reports.opscend.net">the live report</a>
if you want to go through it line by line.</p>

<blockquote>The one thing I would change: retargeting is still running on the broad
audience for the commercial list.</blockquote>

<p>Tell me to cut it and I will cut it this week.</p>

<hr>

<p>No rush on any of this &mdash; Monday is fine.</p>

Headings in Instrument Serif, links ink + underline, a hairline blockquote, <hr>, lists. No classes, no inline styles, no <style> block — the shell already styles all of it.

Subject: Where the reporting standsopen ↗

Specimen

Plain text, converted

What you get when you write with no tags at all and run it through normalizeBody first.

Write this
Dana,

Following up on the note from last week. Still happy to send that breakdown
whenever you want it.

No rush.

⚠️ This one is not paste-ready. Dropped into the blank as-is it renders as one run-on paragraph, because the blank is an HTML file and HTML collapses newlines. normalizeBody is what turns it into the paragraphs below.

What normalizeBody makes of it
<p>Dana,</p>
<p>Following up on the note from last week. Still happy to send that breakdown<br>whenever you want it.</p>
<p>No rush.</p>
Subject: Following upopen ↗