Edited (10 Feb 2023): the excellent Lord Edmund Kerr took this idea and made it reality! It’s not an exact match, because the quality of the input data is variable at best, but it’s so much of an improvement over the old version that I can’t nitpick. Well done, Edmund and the Masonry Team!
This is the sort of thing we see in the Lochac Announce mailing list when an event is approved:
From: Lochac Seneschals' Database via Lochac-Announce <lochac-announce@lochac.sca.org> To: announce@lochac.sca.org Subject: [announce] Event Notification for Spring Crown Tournament on 2021-09-11 (Innilgard) Event notification for Spring Crown Tournament on 2021-09-11 The following announcement has been generated from https://seneschaldb.lochac.sca.org/ and forwarded to Lochac-Announce at the request of the Event Steward. EVENT DETAILS ============= Event Name: Spring Crown Tournament Host Group: Innilgard Start date: Saturday, September 11th 2021 End date: Sunday, September 12th 2021 Setup time(s): SATURDAY 11th Sept Event Set up 0830 Populace set up 0900 Event Start 1030 SUNDAY 12th Sept Event Set up 0900 Populace Set up 0930 Event Start 1030 Event type: Crown Tournament Location: SATURDAY 11th Sept Jubilee Community Centre and Park 7 Jubilee Way, Wynn Vale, SA, 5127 SUNDAY 12th Sept Mellor Reserve and Guide Hall Brand St, Beulah Park, SA STEWARD DETAILS =============== Name: Aeschine of Arran Email Address: steward@springcoronation.lochac.sca.org BOOKING DETAILS =============== Bookings Close: Tuesday, August 24th 2021 Booking Contact: Mistress Elena le Bruestere innilgardbookings@gmail.com A link to the bookings form will be available shortly. Price: BOOKING FORM AVAILABLE SHORTLY Booked by 7th August FULL EVENT inc Feast Adult Member - $55 Minor Member - $35 Adult Non Member - $65 Minor Non Member - $45 Booked by 28th August FULL EVENT inc Feast Adult Member - $70 Minor Member - $35 Adult Non Member - $80 Minor Non Member - $45 Booked by 28th August DAY RATE Adult Member - $5/day Minor Member - Free Non Members booking for the Days only, pay the appropriate event membership once for the event. EG Adult Non Member booking day rate for both days only would pay $5/day ($10) + $10 event insurance, for a total of $20. DESCRIPTION =========== SAVE THE DATE - OFFICIAL BOOKING FORM TO COME SHORTLY Unto the Noble Populace of the Kingdom of Lochac, The time has come for all noble combatants who would contest for the throne to prepare and all those who would bear witness to the spectacle of honourable combat that will determine the Heirs to the Crown of Lochac make arrangements to visit the beautiful Barony of Innilgard for this Spring Crown Tournament! Come play a part in the Kingdom’s history on this momentous occasion! ----------- The SCA Kingdom of Lochac Announcements List ----------- To post an announcement send an email to announce@lochac.sca.org For other lists visit https://lochac.sca.org/mailing-lists/
Look, that’s fine. It gives all the right information, it’s clear, it’s got the data you need, and it’s an automated process so it’s reliable.
But it could be so much better!
Email has come a long way since the days of 2400 baud dial-up modems and Ozemail accounts, but you wouldn’t know it from this example. Let’s see if we can design something a little friendlier that gives the information we need in a more readable form.
A technical note: this will use table-based layout because a number of mail systems (I’m looking at you, Outlook) have not yet been dragged into the 21st century and can’t handle proper styling logic. We’ll manage somehow.
From: Lochac Events via Lochac-Announce <lochac-announce@lochac.sca.org>1 To: announce@lochac.sca.org Subject: [announce] Innilgard:2 Spring Crown Tournament, 11-12 September3
Spring Crown TournamentInnilgard, 11-12 SeptemberCrown Tournament |
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| SAVE THE DATE – OFFICIAL BOOKING FORM TO COME SHORTLY
Unto the Noble Populace of the Kingdom of Lochac, |
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Location4SATURDAY 11th Sept SUNDAY 12th Sept |
Timetable4SATURDAY 11th Sept SUNDAY 12th Sept |
ContactSteward: Aeschine of Arran |
Price5BOOKING FORM AVAILABLE SHORTLY Booked by 7th August Adult Non Member – $65 Booked by 28th August Adult Non Member – $80 Booked by 28th August |
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The SCA Kingdom of Lochac Announcements List
Post an announcement: email announce@lochac.sca.org.
Other email lists: https://lochac.sca.org/mailing-lists/
Notes:
- Everything after the “via” is provided by mail systems we have no control over, but at least we can use a more human-relevant sender name.
- (Suggested by Countess Bethan) Put the branch name first, the better to weed out irrelevancies from an overstuffed inbox.
- If it’s this year, don’t bother putting in the year. Also, provide the full date range, not just one date.
- The text of these is provided by whoever created the event (usually the steward), so there are limits to how we can format them. It might be possible to convince people to use *asterisks* for emphasis instead of ALL CAPS, and then we can convert those to bold text on display.
- Columns added using CSS.