Email Etiquette
~~ by Martha Bagwell,
Martha's Web
Almost everyone with a computer uses email and
why not? It's a great way to communicate with co-workers, family and
friends. Since you already are paying for Internet access, it saves you time
and money too. Need to let someone know about an upcoming event? Just send
an email. Want to send a friend in another country a photo of the new baby?
No problem, insert the photo into an email and send. The photo arrives in
less time than it would take to make a trip to the post office.
Since email is so easy to use, folks soon start using email to send all
sorts of stuff. The next thing you know you are getting a 'lot' (too many)
of forwarded messages. These messages can be jokes, inspirational, so called
virus warnings and 'send this to everyone you know'. The next thing you know
you are getting so much SPAM in your inbox you hate to open it. At least
half of the forwarded messages have been forwarded so many times you have to
scroll through about six or seven forwards before you get to the message.
Each one of those forwards can have as many as twenty or more email
addresses listed and sometimes more. Starting to get the picture? I don't
want someone to mine my email address from one of those forwarded messages.
I'm not saying this is the only way spammers get your email address, but it
sure could be one way they get it.
One of my pet peeves about forwarded messages is all of those >>>>.
Sometimes there are so many of them it is difficult to read the actual
message. There is an easy way to eliminate them if you must forward (or
think you must). Just cut & paste the message into Notepad. From the
Edit menu, click Select all. Next, click Replace in the Edit menu. In the
Find What: put >. In the Replace with: (Leave it blank) and enter. All of
the annoying >>>> are gone. If this seems like too much trouble, you can
also use free programs like Email Stripper at
http://www.papercut.biz/emailStripper.htm or go to this web site,
http://www.geocities.com/cj1alt/stripper.html & strip out the
offending >>>. While you are at it, delete all of those forwarded email
addresses. Then copy the message & paste it into a brand new email. When you
forward it, use the BCC instead of To in the address field and the recipient
will get no one's email address but yours.
Now what should you do about all that forwarding? Do all your friends really
want all this stuff? Have you asked them? Some people don't have the time to
read all of the stuff they get in their inbox. As for me, I really don't
want to read about Microsoft sending out a virus alert and 'send this to
everyone you know'. The hoaxes arrive by the dozen. I do enjoy a good joke,
but I don't want to have to open six or seven forwarded envelopes to get to
it. I would appreciate it if the sender would just copy & paste the joke
into a new email.
Before you send junk like this, it is polite to ask your recipients if they
want to receive it. If they don't respond 'Yes', don't send it! Chances are
they have just been deleting it from their inbox or have it filtered to the
Delete box.
DON'T SHOUT! When you receive a message all in capital letters, do you feel
affronted? I do. If it is very long, I may not read it. There are other ways
to get my attention. Just tell me it is important and I will read it.
Group Email
Reading and posting to group email (Yahoo Groups, FreeLists, etc.)
guidelines
Please put in the subject line what the problem is, not HELP!
When replying to a post make sure all details of the problem are still there
and the irrelevant stuff is removed
There are a lot of folks wanting help, so please be patient. Sometimes the
person who can help you is not on line at the time you post your question.
Remember, this is FREE help.
The people on the lists who will help you can't read your mind, so include
in your post your version of Windows and any service patches you have
installed. If you are using a program that is causing the problem, include
the name and version of the program. What you were doing at the time the
problem occurred can be helpful too. A detailed description of the problem
will get an answer much faster than a vague 'I can't read my email'.
Subscribing & unsubscribing to listsEveryone that has belonged to
a group list has seen this at least once, 'Quit sending me all this email!'.
Just remember this, YOU signed up for it and YOU can unsubscribe. There is
usually information on how to unsubscribe with the welcome message you
received when you joined the list. Keep those messages in a special folder
or file so when you decide you no longer want to receive those emails you
will know how to be removed from the list.
It does take a little more time to practice good email etiquette, but if you
take that time, everyone who receives your electronic missives will greatly
appreciate it.
Martha Bagwell is the Web Master
for
http://www.marthas-web.com , aka surfinmac or Mac
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