Normally I don’t look at the source for HTML emails, but sometimes I end up scrounging around for some important data that didn’t survive the conversion to plaintext. And so that’s how I stumbled upon these gems.

<!--

The phone number module is hidden on Mobile. 

20150122 [JAMES] - Add left-to-right direction to phone number td so phone number shows correctly for right-to-left languages
20150219 [YVONNE] -Updated variables for Venere - added 1px orange birder for Venere
20151019 [YVONNE] - Removed ATde_AT from TUV logic
20160831 [GREG] - Remove Phone Number for VN

//-->

<!--
/*------------------
Email Change Log
------------------*/

140515 [JAMES] - Launch Functionality
141126 [JAMES] - Apply exclusion logic for emergency emails M_BZ_OFC
150213 [JAMES] - Switch to Partners Tool data for localisation
160531 [GREG] - Switch from MHotel_Hcom_Destination DE to HCOM_MHotel_Destination

-->

I’m not sure which is more disturbing. The decision to embed version history in every email they send, or the inconsistent date formats, or the strange mix of HTML, C, and C++ style comments. Using -- is a particularly poor choice of decoration within an HTML comment, by the by.

I’m also having a fun time imagining staying at a hotel 50 years ago, then receiving a follow up letter spattered with white out covering up various notes from the marketer to the secretary. “Insert reference to upcoming holiday here.”