Don't forget e-mail etiquette
By BILL HUSTED
Cox Newspapers
September 01, 2009
ATLANTA -- Long before home users were cruising the Web, they were sending
e-mails back and forth. And e-mail, ancient though it is, remains the most
used application on the Internet.
You'd think, then, that we'd be good at it by now. But we aren't. I'm not
talking about those who send e-mails in all capital letters or who
mistakenly hit send before writing a word. There are worse, but more subtle,
sins.
Let's catalog some of them. I'll list the ones that bother me the most. If you
have pet e-mail peeves, write one and tell me about them. If there are some
I missed that seem of general interest, I'll mention them in a future
column.
It's not so funny: While there are bound to be some folks who enjoy this, I
tire of getting group e-mails that contain nothing but forwarded jokes. If
you want to write me, fine. But please don't send along every joke you've
found.
Even less funny: Honest, Bill Gates isn't giving away money; there's no need
to form a protest movement against a government tax on e-mail because there
is no tax, and AOL is not paying users who forward e-mails. I get forwarded
e-mails like this most weeks, usually from sincere but deluded people.
Weirdly, they often are smart folk, so I have no explanation. If you get an
e-mail with some stupid claim and are asked to forward it on to your
friends, don't. At the very least check things out by going to a site like
Snopes.com.
I don't want to get the picture: Otherwise nice people, including one of my
best friends, are guilty here. I do not want to see every photo you've ever
taken and please, oh, please don't send me long videos. Instead, ask if I'd
like to see the picture you just took of your dog, or the family video of
little Emily's first steps. Consider posting your photos on the Web and then
inviting your friends to view them.
Let's stay unattached: Attachments to e-mails can carry all sorts of dangerous
malware. So unless I ask you to send me something as an attachment, just
don't do it. In most cases, I'll delete the attachment without examining it.
On one fine occasion, a reader -- meaning no harm -- attached a file that
contained a virus and asked me to identify it. My security software probably
will find the malware but I don't see any reason to take a chance.
There's a name for that: I also routinely get group e-mails that contain the
e-mail addresses of all the recipients. E-mail addresses of others should
not be shared without permission. So, if you must send group e-mails -- and
I wish you didn't -- use the BCC (blind carbon copy) option to list all the
intended recipients. That will shield the addresses.
Check everything twice: I've been guilty of this one, and it's truly
embarrassing. There have been times when I've relayed part of another e-mail
by pasting it into my own e-mail. If you ever do that make sure there's
nothing in that pasted portion that might be embarrassing. We all make
casual remarks that could be offensive to others. That in itself is wrong;
spreading them to the person being discussed is even worse.
Don't assume I remember: Just this week I got an e-mail from a person I know
only slightly. It said: "Wednesday is fine." Now I'm sure
Wednesday is a terrific day and may well be fine. But I can't remember
whether I'm supposed to have lunch with someone, or play golf with them, or
take part in some plot to take over the world. So either paste in enough of
the original e-mail to remind me, or just tell me in plain words what you
mean. For instance, in this case, the e-mail should have said: "I
checked and I'm free on Wednesday for the short interview."
It just ain't correct: There's no doubt that e-mail is less formal than a
letter on paper. So we tend to use sentence fragments, spelling that is
suspect and sentences that are like snakes biting their tails. That can make
it hard -- even for a guy like me who was in the Bluebird reading group in
the third grade -- to make sense of what you're saying. Use standard English
in your e-mail.
Like I said, feel free to write if you'd like to add to the list, or even to
disagree. Just don't send your thoughts as an attachment, use all capital
letters, or make it part of a group mail.
Bill Husted writes for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. E-mail:
tecbud(at)bellsouth.net.
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