Don't You Hate It When...

[terpkristin]

...somebody sends out an email either to a distribution list or to a large group of people and asks for personal replies, including in the email, "Be sure to hit 'REPLY' not 'REPLY ALL'" and then some dummy can't read and does a reply all.

I get about 4 or 5 of these a week at work. Usually what happens is that somebody sends a message to VA_ALL (all employees at the Virginia campus) advertising something like a class or an announcement and then undoubtedly somebody (and it's usually only 1 per large email) will hit "reply all" instead of "reply," which makes everybody get that much more email.

I mean...I work with ROCKET SCIENTISTS. It really shouldn't be that hard for most of them...

/tk

[Klinglerware]

Well, I think that's an issue of carelessness rather than stupidity. Embarassingly, I've done it accidentally in the past--and it's more likely to happen before my morning caffeine fix...

[st.cronin]

Don't some email programs warn you when you're about to do something like that? A window that says "are you sure you want to send this to all these people?"

I vaguely remember seeing something like that somewhere.

[albionmoonlight]

I mean...I work with ROCKET SCIENTISTS. It really shouldn't be that hard for most of them...

/tk

I think that the smarter a group of people are, the harder it is for them to understand basic email rules/etiquitte/etc. It is almost like it is a badge of honor to not sully yourself with such mundane details as the difference between reply and reply all.

When I was working for a federal judge a couple of years ago, there was some glitch in the system where an email was sent to all federal judges--and everytime someone replied, it replied to all of them. This led to lots of email building up in boxes, which led to judges telling the sender to "take them off the list," which led to more clutter, which led to more "take me off the list" emails. The IT guys, to their credit, were right on top of it--quickly sending out a notice telling people that there was a problem, and that they were fixing it, and to stop replying to that email telling people to take them off the list because all it did was add clutter.

The IT guys were, of course, ignored, as scores of the brightest minds in the legal profession kept emailing each other, asking to be taken off the list.

[Klinglerware]

Don't some email programs warn you when you're about to do something like that? A window that says "are you sure you want to send this to all these people?"

I vaguely remember seeing something like that somewhere.

I'm sure that's an option. But, if you are working in teams, you will end up sending and responding to many messages with multiple recipients--having to validate everytime you hit "reply all" will become annoying in a hurry.

[terpkristin]

Well, I think that's an issue of carelessness rather than stupidity. Embarassingly, I've done it accidentally in the past--and it's more likely to happen before my morning caffeine fix...

Well, I wasn't trying to imply stupidity per se, but with the level of detail we have to put on everything else we do, this should be a trivial matter for us all.

Just seems so silly when I find out that Billy Bob Joe can't attend a class that got filled up prior to him sending his mass email in response to a mass email for a class.

And lack of caffeine is one thing...I try not to send emails prior to 8:30 a.m. (I get in at 8). But the email that tipped this off was sent at 5:30 p.m. in response to an email sent at 5:20 p.m.

/tk

[chinaski]

the listserve should be able to address the emails individually. silly listserve.

[SnDvls]

don't they have blind carbon copy? if it's sent via BCC originally the reply would only go to the original sender.

[finketr]

...somebody sends out an email either to a distribution list or to a large group of people and asks for personal replies, including in the email, "Be sure to hit 'REPLY' not 'REPLY ALL'" and then some dummy can't read and does a reply all.

I get about 4 or 5 of these a week at work. Usually what happens is that somebody sends a message to VA_ALL (all employees at the Virginia campus) advertising something like a class or an announcement and then undoubtedly somebody (and it's usually only 1 per large email) will hit "reply all" instead of "reply," which makes everybody get that much more email.

I mean...I work with ROCKET SCIENTISTS. It really shouldn't be that hard for most of them...

/tk

On the other hand, I hate it when I send email out to a select group of people discussing policy/procedures and what not with a vendor, and the vendor hits "Reply" instead of "Reply to All" so nobody else got an answer.

[KevinNU7]

On the other hand, I hate it when I send email out to a select group of people discussing policy/procedures and what not with a vendor, and the vendor hits "Reply" instead of "Reply to All" so nobody else got an answer.Word

[jeff061]

Happens here all the time, with the most mundane data gathering topics. Business card requests, laptop inventory survey, you name it. Gets sent to 500 people, a dozen or so invariably decide to reply to all.

[Bee]

I think that the smarter a group of people are, the harder it is for them to understand basic email rules/etiquitte/etc. It is almost like it is a badge of honor to not sully yourself with such mundane details as the difference between reply and reply all.

When I was working for a federal judge a couple of years ago, there was some glitch in the system where an email was sent to all federal judges--and everytime someone replied, it replied to all of them. This led to lots of email building up in boxes, which led to judges telling the sender to "take them off the list," which led to more clutter, which led to more "take me off the list" emails. The IT guys, to their credit, were right on top of it--quickly sending out a notice telling people that there was a problem, and that they were fixing it, and to stop replying to that email telling people to take them off the list because all it did was add clutter.

The IT guys were, of course, ignored, as scores of the brightest minds in the legal profession kept emailing each other, asking to be taken off the list.

This has happened a couple times in my company. People reply to all with the "take me off the list", then others reply all telling the previous people to stop replying all, then IT people reply all that there's a problem and to stop replying all, then someone who just read the first email will reply all with the "take me off the list" comment and start the chain all over again. On a slow day, I find it pretty amusing...:D

[KevinNU7]

This has happened a couple times in my company. People reply to all with the "take me off the list", then others reply all telling the previous people to stop replying all, then IT people reply all that there's a problem and to stop replying all, then someone who just read the first email will reply all with the "take me off the list" comment and start the chain all over again. On a slow day, I find it pretty amusing...:D

My favorate is that sometimes I'll send out this long email with instructions for people and mention that there is an attached spreadsheet for them to use. After I send it I realize I forgot to spreadsheet so I immediately reply back to every say, "Sorry forgot the spreadsheet" and attach it. 2 days later I'll get an email from someone "Where's the spreadsheet?" Then two hours, "I see it now"

[Suburban Rhythm]

You forgot the best part...just when it looks like the madness has ended, someone will ALWAYS 'reply all' asking "Please take me off this distribution list" after becoming upset from the first 20 people using 'reply all'.

I once worked with a girl who sent one of the 'take me off the list' messages...and foolishly checked off to receive a read receipt! So, she got about 2,000 read receipts throughout the next few days from everyone in our dept of the bank. Followed by 'deleted without being read' notification for another few hundred.

Good times

Edit...see someone beat me to it...didn't read far enough.

[Toddzilla]

Sorry, but any stupidass that puts a huge distro, a mailing list, or a giant collection of people in the "TO:" field is just as culpable as the moron that Replies-To-All. If you don't want someone on the list spamming everyone with some stupid comment, then put everyone in the "BCC:" field. Don't give a drunk he keys to the car, don't give a n00b an email full of addresses to spam.

[Toddzilla]

Dola - TK, your IT department needs to either set up the distribution so that emails to "VA_ALL" cannot be Replied-To-All, or the "VA_ALL" distro should only be able to be sent from BCC.

Rocket Science or not, your IT department are morons for letting this happen more than once.

[Raiders Army]

Sorry, but any stupidass that puts a huge distro, a mailing list, or a giant collection of people in the "TO:" field is just as culpable as the moron that Replies-To-All. If you don't want someone on the list spamming everyone with some stupid comment, then put everyone in the "BCC:" field. Don't give a drunk he keys to the car, don't give a n00b an email full of addresses to spam.
/agree

[Aardvark]

I hate being a list manager and having someone who wants to join mailing me with their request, when the invitation specifically says how to join via the listserver. I also hate it when people send email to the list asking to be removed, when every message gives my address as the list administrator. (It's not so bad now that one of the lists is moderated, and the other only allows me and the other co-owner to send messages.)

[terpkristin]

Dola - TK, your IT department needs to either set up the distribution so that emails to "VA_ALL" cannot be Replied-To-All, or the "VA_ALL" distro should only be able to be sent from BCC.

Rocket Science or not, your IT department are morons for letting this happen more than once.

No doubt, this would certainly solve a lot of problems. Alas I've been quite unimpressed with my IT department, so I'm putting more hope in the rocket scientists who work here to a) use BCC for large distributions AND/OR b) not reply all.

Not knocking IT departments in general, of course, just saying that the one here is fairly useless.

/tk

[Raven Hawk]

Well, I wasn't trying to imply stupidity per se, but with the level of detail we have to put on everything else we do, this should be a trivial matter for us all.

Might want to have somebody re-check that O-Ring.

k thanks!