Email etiquette

Dealing with junk mail from spammers is one thing. But junk mail I personally get from people I know is another. Chain letters, stupid attachments, pointless replies and virus hoaxes are not only a waste of bandwidth but they’re a waste of time as well.

With that in mind, the following are my personal guidelines for “playing nice”, when entering into electronic correspondence:

• Don’t send me HTML email, only plain text. HTML is for websites. Only two kinds of people still send HTML messages: spammers and babies. And I don’t want any correspondence from either.

• Learn the difference between the “to”, “cc” and “bcc” fields when you compose your email. I don’t ever want to see my address on any “to” or “cc” lists unless I know every single other person on that list. Every time you fail to do this, you’re helping all the criminals who use my email address for spam purposes.

• If you still insist on sending me an email with a bunch of other people on a “to” or “cc” list, don’t get annoyed when I choose to “reply to all”. As far as I’m concerned, you have given me permission to do just that by making every one of those email addresses public.

• Don’t just forward me an email which you think I might “benefit” from. If it’s worth my time to read it, then make an effort and copy and paste the contents instead. I don’t want to know the email addresses of all the other people the email went to, before it got to me.

• Don’t send me any messages telling me that “you don’t normally forward these types of emails” but this one is somehow different because “Jesus loves me” and I should forward it to everyone I know. I’m certain that Jesus is pretty busy right now and he won’t love me more if I participate. Even if what you feel so compelled to forward on sounds “legitimate” or a “worthy cause”, do your homework first so you don’t make a fool of yourself.

• Don’t type IN ALL CAPS. That’s just rude.

• Don’t send me stupid MP3 clips and other large attachments just because you think I might find them funny, entertaining or informative. Check with me first because I may not necessarily appreciate the time it takes me to download them.

• Don’t just add me to your “cc” list because you think I might benefit from the information. Ask yourself whether I really must know this information as well as all the other things I must know that day.

• Don’t send me stupid “I agree” or “Me too” replies. They’re a waste of space. If you can’t add something worthwhile to the conversation then just shut up. I don’t need to know you got my message, my mail server tells me that already.

• Don’t send me any email without a subject. My mail filter will just delete it. That being said, make your subject meaningful and relevant or my mail filter will likely delete that too.

• Don’t mark your message as “urgent” because I know it’s not. If it’s urgent then phone me instead.

• Don’t phone me within a couple of hours of sending your email to ask me why I didn’t get back to you. I’m too busy to check my inbox more than a couple of times per day. Again, if your message is urgent, use the phone.

• Keep your automatic signature succinct. I’m not interested in reading your personal life philosophy at the end of every message you send me.

• Spelling and grammar are still important. Express yourself clearly and minimise the mistakes, otherwise you’ll come across as illiterate, inarticulate and lazy.

• Make sure your computer’s clock and time zone are correct, otherwise your email could be mixed up with all the mail I’ve already read, thereby ensuring I don’t get to read yours at all.

• If you’re creating a message with a new topic, do not just stupidly reply to a previous email. Compose a brand new message instead.

• Remember that sending email is more like sending postcards than sending letters. Watch what you say as it’s possible for anyone to read your message, before it even gets to your intended recipient.

Finally, read up on email etiquette. I’ve learnt a thing or two and I bet you will too. Once you’ve done that, read the official RFC 1855 Netiquette Guidelines too. They were written for a reason.

Posted in Email, Rants, Tips by Ivan