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Backend/emails: Review copy before localizing#9150

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tristanlabelle merged 13 commits into
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backend/refactor/emails-review-copy
Jun 30, 2026
Merged

Backend/emails: Review copy before localizing#9150
tristanlabelle merged 13 commits into
developfrom
backend/refactor/emails-review-copy

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@tristanlabelle

@tristanlabelle tristanlabelle commented Jun 20, 2026

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Emails are about to be exposed for localization so I reviewed our copy holistically to improve it and make it more consistent, as to minimize chances we'll want to tweak the text once that means new work for 10+ translators.

This is by nature quite editorial and hard to do by committee. I wrote the principles I followed so in the emails.py header, where possible, please suggest improvements there rather than on specific instances.

Until CI kicks in, you can review all emails as HTML files here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12HVJ-Gyt-LJCrwQQlXJ4ui6OzDVBA5cb?usp=sharing

The only email I haven't touched is the first onboarding reminder email. It's quite long and could be made more concise, but I didn't want to give it my voice since it's signed by Aapeli.

I also found that we have a first email asking for a reference that says "How was X's stay with you?", a friendlier tone than the "You have X days to write a reference" reminder emails.

(I'll fix the tests after the strings are reviewed since it's just sync'ing the new strings)

Fixes #8966

Testing

Generated and reviewed all emails using uv run dump-emails.

Backend checklist

  • Added tests for any new code or added a regression test if fixing a bug
  • Run the backend locally and it works
  • Added migrations if there are any database changes, rebased onto develop if necessary for linear migration history

For maintainers

  • Maintainers can push commits to my branch
  • Maintainers can merge this PR for me

@tristanlabelle
tristanlabelle requested a review from aapeliv as a code owner June 20, 2026 19:55
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tristanlabelle marked this pull request as draft June 20, 2026 19:56
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tristanlabelle removed the request for review from aapeliv June 20, 2026 19:56
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tristanlabelle marked this pull request as ready for review June 20, 2026 20:28
@tristanlabelle tristanlabelle changed the title Backend/emails: Review copy before localizing. Backend/emails: Review copy before localizing Jun 20, 2026
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CouchersBot commented Jun 20, 2026

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@jesseallhands jesseallhands left a comment

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mostly some wording improvements

Comment thread app/backend/src/couchers/email/locales/en.json
Comment thread app/backend/src/couchers/email/locales/en.json
Comment thread app/backend/src/couchers/email/locales/en.json
Comment thread app/backend/src/couchers/email/locales/en.json
Comment thread app/backend/src/couchers/email/locales/en.json
Comment thread app/backend/src/couchers/email/locales/en.json Outdated
Comment thread app/backend/src/couchers/email/locales/en.json Outdated
Comment thread app/backend/src/couchers/email/locales/en.json
Comment thread app/backend/src/tests/test_jail.py
Comment thread app/backend/src/tests/test_jail.py
tristanlabelle and others added 10 commits June 29, 2026 09:21
Co-authored-by: Jesse <79384268+jesseallhands@users.noreply.github.com>
Co-authored-by: Tristan Labelle <github@tristanlabelle.com>
Co-authored-by: Jesse <79384268+jesseallhands@users.noreply.github.com>
jesseallhands
jesseallhands previously approved these changes Jun 30, 2026

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left some replies in there; we definitely need new issues for mod note and postal verification rewording. Please tag me in both those issues and I'll also discuss with Aapeli.

@tristanlabelle

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@jesseallhands thanks. I added the "my home" reference and will merge. Then I'll follow up with the updated onboarding1 message PR, and we have ongoing convos about the postal verification and moderator note renames.

@tristanlabelle
tristanlabelle merged commit 54dd177 into develop Jun 30, 2026
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@tristanlabelle
tristanlabelle deleted the backend/refactor/emails-review-copy branch June 30, 2026 14:22
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📝 Release Notes

This PR does not need to be included in release notes.

Reason: This PR mainly rewrote and standardized email copy in preparation for localization, with only minor user-visible wording tweaks and a small quick-decline addition to reminder emails. It is mostly editorial/internal cleanup rather than a significant new end-user feature or major technical improvement.

🤖 Bot Debug Information

Model: couchers.openai.gpt-5.4
Decision: exclude
Reasoning: This PR mainly rewrote and standardized email copy in preparation for localization, with only minor user-visible wording tweaks and a small quick-decline addition to reminder emails. It is mostly editorial/internal cleanup rather than a significant new end-user feature or major technical improvement.

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Backend/emails: Review copy before exposing for localization

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