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I don't understand how copy/paste can trigger the tracking on your side. Can you please explain? I am using mutt to read emails and vim to write them, I'd be v

• tpxl 9y ago
  The URL holds an unique id for each mail sent, such as the `blah_id=123456` example in the parent comment.
  • binaryapparatus 9y ago
    I understand that. I don't understand how copy/paste has anything to do with pinging anything on the internet with that code. Is this maybe some gmail thing? I can't think of mechanism that makes copy/paste trigger this.
    • tpxl 9y ago
      Copy pasting into the browser to view the link triggers this, just copying doesn't. If I understood the previous comment correctly, the author copies links into the browser instead of clicking them (since they aren't clickable links).
    • ubernostrum 9y ago
      "Copy/paste" here means "Copy the URL, paste it into the address field of a Web user-agent program, and initiate navigation to that URL in that Web user-agent program". I suspect the phrasing was used since the discussion is about text-only email and, this being Hacker News, someone might have nit-picked that they view plaintext emails in a mail user agent program which does not scan for strings matching the format of a URL and offer a direct way to click on them or otherwise trigger automated opening of them in a Web user-agent program, and so the person who wrote "copy/paste" had to avoid saying "click on the link".