Rel attribute values/reply-to
reply-to is a rel value for use when linking to a target URL (e.g. an email address) where notifications or contact information for the current page should be sent.
For example, on a technical specification, the contact link for the responsible working group should have a rel="reply-to" attribute-value pair.
The reply-to rel value is named after the Reply-To Mail Header introduced in the IETF RFC822, ARPA INTERNET TEXT MESSAGES.
Note: reply-to is distinct and different from in-reply-to, which indicates that the current page is a reply to the page being linked to.
Syntax
<a rel="reply-to" href="mailto:public-wg-name@w3.org">public-public-wg-name@w3.org</a>
Publishers
In a document that has a point of contact for comments, questions, or other feedback, the reply-to rel value should be used on a hyperlink to indicate that contact information.
If there are multiple points of contact for a document, all of these contacts should be concatenated into a list of email addresses in a single hyperlink with the reply-to rel value. The reply-to rel value should not be used on multiple hyperlinks in the same document.
Consumers
If a page contains a hyperlink with the reply-to rel value, the first hyperlink with the reply-to rel value should be used as the address(es) to send the contact message.
Example Usage
- An annotation system that allows users to directly annotate a technical specification in a browser can look for the feedback link with
rel="reply-to"to automatically detect the mailing list to send a notification when an annotation is made. - An article on a news site could include a feedback link with
rel="reply-to"to allow people to easily and consistently send in corrections through another channel than a comments mechanism. - A popular blog could include a feedback link with
rel="reply-to"to allow readers to send in feedback to the author even if the article has been republished on third-party aggregator sites.