We're all learning how to deal with each other electronically; developing etiquette for the electronic age. I don't want to come off like one of those tight lipped Victorian matrons who sneered at people using the wrong fork here, but if I do, well I guess I'm ok with that.
What's got me ranting this morning are group emails.
If you want to send emails to a lot of people you have to select the names from your address book and add them individually. Don't just send to everyone in your address book. Chances are you have me in your address book because you queried me and I said no. That doesn't mean we're friends. Sorry, but true.
If I get a mass email from someone I don't know, I not only delete it, I mark it as junk. That way I'll never see another email from you again.
I've gotten even more fierce lately and started creating mail rules in my email management program. This allows me to divert specific email addresses to the deleted file. I can't mark email addresses from gmail or hotmail as junk without losing ALL incoming mail from gmail or hotmail. A mail rule lets me do that now. And I am.
Email management is a BIG issue with me as I wrangle 200-300 incoming emails A DAY. If 10% of that is crapola, and it is, I'm strongly motivated to make sure I only have to look at it once.
No forwards.
No political essays.
No e-newsletters I haven't subscribed to.
No commentary on the publishing industry.
NOTHING you send to more than just me.
If you have something you think a lot of people should see, put it on your blog. Chances are if I know you and I'm interested in what you have to say I subscribe to your blog through Google Reader and I'll see it.
I'm going to be ruthless about this in the coming year.
Just a word to the wise.
10 comments:
How about no to those emails warning people of the latest virus that will not only wipe out your hard drive but brand each of your children with and 'L' on their forehead.
My personal favorites are those that include a link to snopes. Then when you click on it (or go to snopes on your own) snopes says that the warning is a hoax that has been passed around since 1998.
I make a point of letting the senders know when this happens, and oddly enough, they stop sending me stuff. Lol!
Right. Got it. NO more goat emails.
Hmm. That doesn't work for me, Lehcarjt. Of course, maybe they're too busy reading spam to read my responses.
So, Janet, I have to stop sending you all those messages that promise you good things only if you send them on to a hundred other people? Dang. Now who can I send them to, so I can get good things?
Good words to live by. And nothing at all wrong with a liberal application of blacklisting to back it up.
It's a shame such tactics are necessary. Wasn't Bill Gates supposed to deliver us a spam-free world? Dang, Bill, I'm guessing retirement got in the way of that noble goal.
Yeah, well Mr. Gates also told us we'd never need more than 64K of RAM. Then he went out of his way to prove himself a liar.
Only 10% crapola! You are getting off so easy. Mine is more like 10% not-crapola. What are you doing right?
Bwahaha! As a high school teacher, I feel your pain. I strongly suggested to my students that they create a "professional" email account with their name/last name (as opposed to hawttchick09), so we teachers can identify the email sender. An added benefit was that they could then keep school email separate from fun/personal email. When I started receiving "friend" invites from my students for various spammy social networking sites, I realized yet another huge advantage of having a separate email address to use with teachers... alas, they still don't listen to me.
Ah, but Criss! Take them up on their offers, read absolutely everything that gets posted, then tease the heck out of them about what you read. After that, they'll be a little more discriminate over who they invite.
Or, if you don't want to do this for all students, pick a few at random, including at least a couple of the popular kids.
Yes, I have a nasty mind.
With all due respect, stop whining. All those emails mean you are popular and evidently good at your job... complain when the number begins to decrease.
I was a 6th grade teacher in Manhattan for 34 years and now I am retired. I said, "Just a word to the wise... or no playground for you." You could say, "Just a word to the wise or no book for you."
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