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43Folders.com is Merlin Mann’s website about finding the time and attention to do your best creative work.

Five email tics I'd love for you to lose

For the love of God, people; can we get the word out on these? Format courtesy of my other site.

  1. The liberal use of the "VERY HIGH PRIORITY!!!" flag
  2. The 18-line sig about all the Bad Things that will happen to me if I ever reveal the contents of your privileged, confidential (and unencrypted) message
  3. The unrequested press release (and the serial ignoring of the "Unsubscribe" I sent you for the previous seven press releases)
  4. The graphical background, font and table tags, and remaining 14k of HTML cruft associated with every. single. message. you've ever sent
  5. The including of my -- plus 98 other strangers' -- personal email addresses in the "To:" line of your friendly reminder about Tyler's birthday party

Friend: I love you, but you must evolve.

MissNis's picture

I don't like all the...

I don't like all the little abbreviations like BTW. Maybe it's just me, but I don't want to learn them all, and it takes me longer to read.

Another peeve is when people break down what I wrote and then answer stuff in bright colors under what I wrote...or use fancy unreadable fonts. They are just TOO into the artsy look which detracts from the message.

About those receipts. It seems like people who constantly require receipts for their e-mails are just SO insecure, don't you think? It's kind of like "hey, notice me, okay?"

What about when the formatting is double-spaced (and I'm not used to that) so I end up having to back-space all the time.

Also irritating is when people reply with not enough information for you to even have a CLUE as to what they are responding to...such as "Yes, do that" - with your original question or comment erased.

Someone mentioned all caps. I agree, and, well all lower case is just too e.e. cummings for me (E. E. Cummings, for us rebels).

Not cleaning up forwards is just about unforgiveable, as are passing on the hoax e-mails without checking and the e-mails that promise you three wishes if you pass them on to seven friends.

I must admit I get a certain amount of perverse pleasure in clicking "reply to all" on those and inserting a link to a hoax site. Has anyone ever really believed that you'd get $50 from Microsoft for passing an e-mail on to 100 people?

 
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