Lately I have been getting a number of forwards from a young lady who knows a common friend of ours. I believe she got my email from mass mailing that he sent out and thus she has been sending almost daily jokes and forwards.
Now I enjoy a good joke like anyone, and get them from several people at my hotmail address. But I took the time today to reply to her with a few suggestions on how not annoy the people she is sending the emails too. I have included them here because I think they are good for anyone who uses email to know about.
Enjoy.
Hey XXXX,
Just wanted to drop you a note about the email forwards you send out. Just a few quick pointers that I think everyone should be aware of to make life a little easier.
I love to get a good joke in my inbox but honestly I have been online so long now that it’s been 4 or 5 years since I seen anything really original. Most of the stuff I get, not just from you so do not take this personally, I have seen before in some format or another. So this is what I suggest to my friends, family or anyone else who sends me mail on a regular basis. I hope you find these tips useful and if you do or don’t let me know.
1) If you have an email and you just have to share it with people be selective! Make a mailing list in your address book, of people who you know like getting jokes, funny images and what not. Make sure that anyone on that list is not getting it the message twice and they want to be on it. I am pretty sure hotmail supports the ability to make a group in your address book.
2) Clean up the email. Remove any information in the email that would reveal someone else’s email address. You know what I mean, all that information from when the message was forwarded and replied too before you got it. Some times those fields can contain business email addresses that if it fell in the wrong hands could cause someone a problem at their office. Unlike peoples personal email address, where you can get a new one if your current one fills up with junk – I don’t suggest this BTW – a business address is much harder to change and companies do not want to deal with that kind of problems. Equate an email with your home address or phone number. Do you want other people passing it around? Return the favor, don’t pass theirs around. Also remove all those >>>> from the body of the message so it reads nice.
3) Do not, under any circumstances, forward; chain letters, offensive material, so called “official messages” (Hotmail is not going to shut down your email if you refuse to forward some message), “save little
A popular example would be that message you likely have seen that Bill Gates is trying to get rid of his money and if you forward this to as many people as possible he will pay you $20 per person or something along those lines. Chances are it’s always some kind of hoax, maybe in 1% of the time it’s not. In that case I already got it, so you do not need to send it to me.
4) Always consider your audience. I liken this to sitting down with pen and paper to write your grandmother a letter. Would you use cute little slang saying she may or may not know? or write LOL when you meant to say that you found something funny? No, I don’t think you would so do the same for the readers of your email. They will notice the difference between that and all the other email they get.
5) The “replay all” button is bad, never use it.
I hope these little pointers help and you agree with me. I don’t mean to come off rude or anything so if you took this email that way I am sorry that was not my intent. I don’t mind the odd joke but I do mind spam. Help stop spam! If you think I am over reacting or you don’t see the point of my email then maybe it’s best I don’t get any more forwards then.
Hope you have a great Christmas, and if you are like me and all my friends good luck on your exams.
-Christopher
*starts a slow clap*