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Do Not, Repeat, Do Not Hit The Reply All Button

Email

from the deluge dept

Wed, Oct 12th 2005 10:11am — Mike Masnick
While not everyone likes it, there is something appealing about Gmail's "conversations" set up, where all emails within a thread are grouped under a single line item in your in box. It certainly helps deal with those times that you get included in a group email and people all start hitting "reply all." Without it, an email box can quickly turn into a big mess -- especially when others pissed off by this decide to hit "reply all" and tell everyone else to stop hitting "reply all." It turns out, in fact, that a new survey found that people who hit the reply all button when they shouldn't is the biggest email pet peeve.
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12 Comments

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  • identicon
    Bob3000, 12 Oct 2005 @ 10:51am

    No Subject Given

    Not a big fan of the threaded conversations or the Gmail layout - that makes me an incredible minority. My pet peeve is less the reply all but the (a) chain letter emails and (b) obvious hoaxes sent to all recipients in the person's address book. In this case I DO use Reply to All, add a link to snopes that debunks the hoax, and shame the original sender.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Sean, 12 Oct 2005 @ 11:08am

      Reply all

      This could be eliminated easily with the use of BCC, instead of To. But I don't often find any non-techies who even know what it is, much less use it when appropriate.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Beth, 12 Oct 2005 @ 12:30pm

        Re: Reply all

        I use bcc all the time, and am only a nominal techie, if that's even possible. Reply all from e-mail groups such as yahoo! presents a possibility for a big "oops". You mean to reply to the original sender with perhaps a personal comment, and send your private thoughts back to the whole group. Could be benign or very damaging. Makes me check twice before clicking "send."

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      smg, 12 Oct 2005 @ 11:50am

      Re: No Subject Given

      wow, good to know im not the only one who does that

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      marilyn, 12 Oct 2005 @ 11:52am

      Re: No Subject Given

      I just did that to a coworker and she was all pissy about me pointing it out. I wanted to scream, "then take me off that damn list and it won't happen again!"

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2005 @ 3:31pm

      Re: No Subject Given

      me too! Great fun.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 13 Oct 2005 @ 3:35am

        Re: No Subject Given

        The worst case of using reply to all i think i ever saw was in an office i worked in a while back...An e-mail message was aacidentally sent to the WHOLE office rather then just a set department advertising a conference or something. Yes this was a little annoying to start with as it was simply ANOTHER spam e-mail to most users but could easily have been deleted and ignored as an obvious mistake. Instead the vast majority of employees used reply to all to request that they were taken off of the relevant departments mailing list as they were not part of the department at all. What followed was half a day of EVERYONE receiveing messages along the line of "please remove me from your address list i do not belong to this dept" with the more "knowledgeable" users getting annoyed and realising what had happened they then proceeded to spread e-mails instructing people to "stop using reply to all - you are annoying everyone in the office - use REPLY!" By the end of the day the e-mail network had been effectively ground to standstill with the huge excess in traffic. And all because of a brilliant mix of poor training and stupid people

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 12 Oct 2005 @ 12:24pm

    No Subject Given

    I love the thread organization in gmail. Reply-All is quite useful in many applications. But if you use it on joke emails sent to a long list of people, those sender's contacts are automatically added to your own contact list, and that is fit punishment.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    eeyore, 13 Oct 2005 @ 6:16am

    job insecurity

    A few months back our front desk security person sent an email to everyone at the facility to let us know it had started raining. Since our building has very few windows most people are not in a position to see for themselves, and many people leave their car windows down on hot days. Also it's nice to know if you need to grab an umbrella. However one person who was on travel overseas saw the email and sent a nasty response to the girl saying "it's raining here too but you don't see me making a big deal about it" and then proceeding to get quite snotty and personal about it. Problem was she hit the "reply all" button and sent it to about 1500 people, including her boss, her boss' boss, the big boss, and the government boss of all of us, who proceded to chew her boss out for her "misusing the email system." Her boss in turn was so pissed off that when the woman returned from travel she was told she was no longer employed here. A "reply all" oops is usually OK as long as you don't embarrass your boss in the process.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Edward John, 22 Mar 2008 @ 10:47am

    (ASSISTANT)

    My dear Friend, I am Dr. Edward John. , the system and control director at the (BOA) BANK OF AFRICA. I am writing this letter to solicit for support and assistance from you to carry out this business opportunity in my bank. Lying in an inactive account is the sum of 5.5milion pounds sterling belonging to a foreign customer (Kreis Thomas,) who was a gas consultant here in IVORY COAST,who happens to be deceased during a business trip. He died with his wife(Deborah Thomas) on board the Swissair Flight 111 , which crashed into the Atlantic off Nova Scotia in september 2nd 1998. The news of this crash was on the news which we have notified his relatives to no avail. See links below for more detail informaion: http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/WORLD/9809/swissair.victims.list/http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/WORLD/a mericas/9809/08/swissair.02/ Ever since he died the bank has been expecting his next of kinto come and claim these fund. To this effect, we can not release the money unless someone applies for it as next of kin, as indicated in our banking guideline. Unfortunately he has no family member in IVORY COAST or Over-sea who are aware of the existence of the money(as he was a gas consultant. At this juncture i have decided to do business with you. To this effect I solicit your assistance in applying as the next of kin to the bank then the money will be released to you, as I do not want this money to go into the bank treasury as an unclaimed bill, because the banking law and guideline stipulates that if such money(s) remains unclaimed for a period of up to nine years six months(9yrs 6months),the money will be transferred into the banks treasury as an unclaimed bill. My request for a foreigner as next of kin is occasioned by the fact that the customer was a foreigner and a British cannot stand as next of kin. 40% of the money will be your share as a foreign partner and your assistance to actualise this business,5% for any expenses incured. Thereafter i will visit your country with your help once the money hits your account for disbursement according to the percentage indicated. To effect the immediate transfer of the fund to you as agreed, you must apply first to the bank as the next of kin to the deceased, then we will follow up all formalities for the transaction. Upon receipt of your reply, i will like forward to you the contacts of the bank for you to forward your bank details to the bank, and further clearify you in other issues as to affect this business. Best RegardsDr. Edward John.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Spam killer, 24 May 2008 @ 11:34am

    Re:(ASSISTANT) by Edward John on Mar 22nd, 2008 @ 10:47am

    Re:(ASSISTANT) by Edward John on Mar 22nd, 2008 @ 10:47am
    --------------------


    Your scamming days are over ,biscuit lips.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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