Dylan Smith

Sensitive Subjects

A few things I learned about programming while building a small web project

Email marketers love a good subject line mishap. You know, when it’s supposed to say something like, “Get 50% off all cocktails from 5–7pm” and it doesn’t quite work out.

Because everyone reads their email on different devices in different apps with different column widths, there’s a great chance at least some recipients will see a truncated version of any sent subject line. Inspired by some of the accidents that get posted in Email Geeks Slack, I made a tool to check would-be subjects for unintended messages.

Screenshot of Sensitive Subjects subject line testing tool
Screenshot of sensitivesubjects.com

Here are some things I learned while building it:

That last point is actually how I feel about programming in general. With every little project or task, I get faster, it feels easier, and I notice my skills improving. I built only static websites for years and years. Now I have the confidence to at least attempt anything I can think to create.

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