Discussion on:

Four email types that can drive you crazy

Forwards! Especially the forwards that are 10+ years old, but the sender is acting like it's brand new.

I used to know a lady who was convinced that if she only sent me enough emails about her political persuasion, I could be saved. Quite a number of times I went through the emails point by point and try to convince her that either the person who wrote it was too stoopid to come in from the rain or was actually advocating the opposite perspective and having a good laugh at the people who would forward the message. Naturally, it didn't stop her, so I finally just had her messages transferred directly to my trash.

Then there are the ones telling me if I mop my floor with this product and my dog or cat licks it, the animal will suffer irreparable kidney damage or something. (I got that one from a nurse and I chewed her severely for giving health advice--even for animals--without checking it.) And if I'll sign this petition, we can convince the Florida Secretary of State to stop the recounts and uh, that one has been getting a little long in the tooth. Don't forget to call this number to get your cell phone on the do-not-call list, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCSA7kKNu2Y&ob=av2e

Once you get past the ad.

I'm forwarding it!!

nt

Your comment illustrates my pet peeve; writers who are too stoopid to correctly spell "stupid", or just about anything else over three letters.

It is a common usage these days. Also, dood = dude. It is misspelled intentionally for effect.

I don't get any of those types of email. Now, watch it start.

In addtion to that, (including Forwards) how about REPLY ALL or worse yet ADDING more people to the email that really dont have a need to see the email or need to be included ever. My biggest pet peeve is when people email everyone and their brother on something that only needs to be sent to myself and a few select. Worse yet is having my email replied to and adtl people added. Just makes me want to spit!

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there's a reason why people add others to your emails.

Yes...sometimes its because they should have been included initially ..Its one thing to add more people to an email because they NEED to be added, my point was adding more people to an email that do not need to be included.

I hate it when people leave the subject blank (or just put in a subject, and no body). I also loathe people who include a signature that tags on quotes, extra fonts, backgrounds, pics, etc, sending me (and everyone else) a 1MB email just to say 'Ok'.

I have someone who attempts to put the entire message in the subject line. Sometimes they get cut off when they run out of space on the subject line and I will only see one or two words in the body of message.

....tell me they didn't like my e-mail style. To say I didn't lose any sleep over their opinions would be a massive understatement.

A better article title would be...

"Why everybody should conform to my preferences for everything."

Seriously, if you want direct, efficient communications, you need to doing that in your ticket systems, crm's, etc. E-mail is an open ended method and you are not going to be able to control how other people e-mail.

Similar to "The out-of-context puzzler", I'm often asked "Did you get my last email?" ... no reference to what it was about.

Keeping in mind I receive literally hundreds of emails every day, it's impossible for me to know what this person is talking about. This happens at least once a week.

How about the newbie who forwards the email and leaves all those hundreds of previous names and addresses in the body? You then have to wade through them to find the message. This is particularly evident when the forwarder uses AOL.

Oops... I just realized I said basically the same thing ITsupportCOC said. Sorry. (If I can edit my message, why can't I delete it?)

I have one know-it-all customer who insists that leaving the subject line blank actually ensures that the recipient will read the email, as if it were titled "TOP SECRET - EYES ONLY" or similar.

Mass forwards (an affliction that I call Compulsive Forwarding Syndrome, or CFS) runs rampant at times, too.

A newsletter with hundreds of recipients that are all visible on the "To" line rather than the "Bcc" line is a sure sign that I'll end up on a list that I would prefer not to be in. That's the email equivalent of walking around with your zipper down.

The "Four Types" list was fun to read. I have a few of the Doctoral Candidates who send a 400 word essay when answering a "Yes" or "No" query.

I get emails from a cross of 'out of context' and 'stream of consciousness' folk - - they want a deffnitive answer and plan to hang me if I'm wrong. They get huffy when my equally terse reply amounts to "insufficient information'. So I have to guess at what they REALLY want and cover the bases.

I'm afraid 3 of 4 of those - is me. I tend to give people too much. It's just that My pet peeve is those who answer only one of three questions, or are so vague that you have to email back 5 times to get an understanding. So I go the extra mile to get it right the first time.
Yeah, I should just call them in most cases. But hey, it's on record when I email.

In my experience, style #1 is a direct reaction to being blindsided by people who are (often) less intelligent and who react to otherwise brief technical emails with snide remarks and a tons of vague followup questions. I try to be thorough to avoid the inevitable baiting I receive when I don'y

#2 & #3 are often the style of those same baiters.

#4. rare. SO rare in fact that I hardly pay it any attention. Admittedly, sometimes I'll send one that has a bit of formatting, even way too much if they've pissed me off. (see #2 & #3)

I hate when people think I can read their mind. Especially business related communications. Forward me some one else's email to them and expect me to figure out what it is they want me to do with the situation. As if my time isn't valuable too. Just say hey, can you react to this forwarded email is roughly this manner? Instead of nothing but expectation that I'll "handle it". It's just a bit to Lording and passive-aggressive for my taste.

The one that has been around the block 50 times before and you get it from the same person. Doesn't anyone read before they forward?

I hate when someone will pass along (or include others in a reply) when you may have typed something you meant to be personal between the two of you. Have you had that happen? Then as the email bounces back and forth amongst all parties, it gets ongoing air time each time. I should know better - yes.
But once it happens, they may not think it's a big deal or perhaps are making me pay for it by displaying it for all to see, including the person I may have made the comment on. Ouch.

When it comes to subject lines (or lack thereof)... I get those from only a few people but it's consistently them. And I don't know about you but I store my emails if they are of any importance. Months later I have to open each and every one to find the right one.

It is especially annoying when you are CC:ed on the e-mail they're sending to anyone with a pulse, where everybody can read where you are specifically telling them that something is sensitive or should be kept confidential. It's bad enough that they are accidentally (or on purpose) hanging you out to dry, but you look like a creep for withholding information.

Seeing it happen quickly taught me to never write anything that you wouldn't want EVERYONE to read. If you want something to be private, don't use e-mail, and preferably, handle it in person.

If you don't have the time for a polite greeting, or having enough info included in case you have forgotten details, you have other problems. Slow down, the world won't end, and you'll be much happier and a nicer person for it.

Or perhaps I shouldn't have included actual complete words, capitals, punctuation.

Ever hear the phrase "90 miles an hour down a dead-end street"?

I used to (and occasionally still) fall into the "doctoral candidate" camp. When I was new on the job, and unsure of my decisions, I used to write multi-page e-mails walking the reader through my entire thought process to make sure they understood what I did and how I came to the conclusion, in the hopes that if I was wrong, they could help me figure out where I got off track. I failed to realize a number of people either refused to read the e-mail or assumed I was trying to be a "know-it-all."

I got a great piece of advice from this or one of its sister sites: Write your e-mail like a news article (and don't bury the lead). The first sentence should be the most important point you want to convey or the question you need answered, then fill in with supplemental information in descending importance.

Your e-mails can still be long, but make them read fast, so your readers will have already hit the most important points long before their eyes can glaze over.

Or the "chain-mail" type message that ALWAYS ends with something along the lines of, "send this to at least 80% of your inbox and you will receive the blessing of the 18th son of the 3rd cousin of the saint of Lower-South-East-Middle-North-Street.

People that treat my inbox as though I was Twitter or Facebook. They're mostly fluff and resisting the urge to just automatically delete is very hard to resist.

I hate it when people write something (question or statement) in the subject and then leave the body of the mail blank, or even continue writing as if there were just a comma between the subject and the body.

time, here on TechRepublic! See?

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You may have used a spell checker, but you also need to read before sending, 'To me, any attempt communication' should include 'at' or say 'to communicate' , I say this as the article complains of grammar mistakes !!

My pet email hate is the forwarded mail without editing, many, many addressess, Fwd's etc and all the crap at the end, tends to lead to big files and is laziness.

You have a pile of grammar mistakes and spelling errors in your comment. Please tell me that you did it on purpose to highlight your point.

They send a reply follow up to a tiny 5 minute task that was done over a year ago with "What happened with that?" just to clear emails for which they have no final responsibility.

The worst is when some morons feel like they have to include the service desk email in there back and forth emailing to eachother, which logs a call automatically everytime. So annoying!

Being shouted at in emails where the sender uses nothing but capital letters. I remember one colleague who wrote all emails like this - they were incredibly difficult to read. She also created Powerpoint presentations with purple text on a yellow background, causing migraines in all who saw them. Powerpoint; now that's a subject all of its own...