5th April, 2000 Just hit delete. No - hang on! Not you! That's the title of today's article/newsletter/piece of writing. (What do I call this thing?) Let's start again. Email Etiquette Everyone is Expected to Exercise. That's a nice bit of Elliteration from ozEkoala there... oops - that's alliteration. Does poetic license cover spelling errors? Have you read the sort of article in which the author advises his/her readers to 'just hit delete' when receiving email they consider objectionable? (I'm not talking about the infamous 'spam' email here - more the email that arrives legitimately as part of some newsletter you've signed up for but something in it wasn't quite what you expected...) The alternative practice, and one apparently adhered to by at least a few netizens, is to 'just hit reply, and then let fly!' Anonymity, or the illusion of it, produces some pretty ugly monsters when it comes to email use and abuse. I get around a bit when it comes to the WWW (weird and wonderful world online) and I often read comments here and there relating to this topic. Mild-mannered men, lovely ladies, suddenly becoming ranting ratbags when they read something in their email box that they don't like the sound of. I'm just making a point here - it's good email etiquette to keep your quivering mouse pointer away from that Reply button long enough to think for a second. Ask yourself, "Can this wait?" See if you still feel this driving urge to reply later... tomorrow, say. Let the mud settle a bit, and see what's left. A great example of this happened a few months ago on an email list I subscribe to. Something went horribly wrong with an automated system and the same email was arriving every few minutes. It is a bit scary to be in the firing line of an email machine, I can tell you! People were panicking all over the world! The hilarious part is that the Reply button fiends were firing straight back at it, and because of a wrong setting by someone deep in the bowels of somewhere, the complaining emails were accidentally being sent to everyone subscribed to the list (not just the list owner)! The original problem was cleared up quickly and efficiently, but the reactionary emails became a whole new problem in themselves. As more and more complaints poured in, more and more people became infected with the same Reply-button Rage, and the cyber-waves kept rolling in. We were being swamped. I was highly amused that the whole list was able to read the rantings of some of the members as they expressed their outrage at having their inboxes bombarded mercilessly by a mindless machine. I did sympathise with their plight - some poor souls have to pay by the minute for downloading. It is mildly annoying for anyone to have this happen, and even more so if it costs you money to be annoyed! How ironic, though, that the complainers were perpetuating the situation that they were complaining about! I had to laugh. So, does that convince you to take my advice to heart? Before you click Reply and give someone your 2 cents worth, spare a thought for the poor person on the other end and wait a while. Hey - that just gave me an idea. Next time you get the urge to complain bitterly about some injustice you have suffered, how about going to the Hunger Site and clicking your mouse there instead. I keep a link handy and go there every day. One click and you help feed a poor person through advertising sponsorship. It might help keep things in perspective. There are some things in this world that are worth getting mad about - and they have nothing to do with trivial email annoyances. Did
you see my last email? It was called 'Some thoughts on our need to pray.' What I
said there applies here, too. Don't hit reply, and let fly... |
