FTNformatted

FTNformatted is a plain-text formatting convention intended for documents distributed over FTN networks (FidoNet technology). It provides a lightweight, human-readable way to attach metadata and ensure consistent rendering across diverse FTN clients.

Origin and adoption: Developed by volunteers in the FTN community in the early days of FidoNet-era workflow; it is commonly used for newsletters, documentation, and plain-text articles within echomail and netmail channels. It remains a niche standard within legacy BBS and hobbyist archival projects.

Structure: The file begins with a header block consisting of multiple "Key: Value" lines. The header is terminated by a blank line. The content is plain text, divided into paragraphs. A minimal set of required fields typically includes Version, Title, Author, Date, and Message-ID. Optional fields include Area, Tags, and License. The character encoding is historically restricted to 7-bit ASCII in classic FTN deployments, with UTF-8 supported in modern readers and archives.

Content rules: FTNformatted favors simple, readable text without embedded markup. It encourages wrapping and line-length discipline to improve legibility on varied clients and mailers. Attachments, when needed, are handled as separate files rather than embedded binary data within the document.

Tools and compatibility: Parsers and validators exist in several programming languages to extract metadata, render content, or convert to other formats. While not an official standard, FTNformatted is supported by various FTN-era tooling, archival workflows, and community documentation repositories, and it continues to be used by enthusiasts and historians studying legacy nets.