Community Newsletter: Q&A forum: Share with us some of your e-mailing etiquette

virtual com is like live com i mean there are all kind of folks and as in real life we already know who we want to talk to so my advice is dont even bother to know anyone else erase it youll be a lot better

If the person is forwarding information that is not true (e.g. all those internet warnings, cancer warnings, microsoft awards etc.), is out of date (e.g. science projects from 2002) they not only should not be forwarded but all the recipients of the sender's email should be informed or totally irresponsible (e.g. add your name to the list it's really cool). I, personally, believe that you are offering everyone a VALUABLE service by saving them the time of looking these things up themselves and future time of reading and forwarding the same false or out of date email. I would just tell everyone that the info is false and they can look it up at www.....com.

If it's of a more personal nature, e.g. about someone you and the sender know, it's more of a judgment call. You have to decide whether to tell the subject of the email or just tell the sender why it's untrue. As to the other people on the list, if you know it's not true and it is very hurtful and slanderous, you are saving all of them from a potential lawsuit if they also forward the email. But you have to decide based on the content.

As to the sender who sent the information in the first place. If they are embarrassed by being "chastised" when your reply to all is innoculous and merely factual, all I have to say is too bad. They're being oversensitive and overlooking the bigger issue here and that is that they are spreading false information over the internet and wasting everyone's time.

I believe that email etiquette would require you to respond to all if the information is listed on any of the hoax websites because clearly the sender is not thinking about how they are wasting everyone's time and filling up everyone's mailboxes.

I have tried everything I could think of to get people to not add my address to every forward they send out, and very few seem to be able to grasp the concept of the BCC line. Even when you ask them to not include your address, they still do. This subject is one you just have to either live with, as in the case of family [how do you tell yor son or daughter 'hey, stupid'] or, as I have done, set up a mailing address just for the worse offenders and figure anything you get on that address not from that person or persons is spam and deal with it accordngly! I also do not add to the problem by forwarding anything without removing All the addresses!

If I recieve letters that I think have false information I first check it out at www.snopes.com If it is false informatiom I contact the person who sent it. If they left multiple addresses I send to them too. I VERY GENTLY ask them to go to the snopes link and read the information there about the mail they sent. So far, I have never had anyone get mad at me. I would rather take a chance on getting yelled at than keep getting the same old tired false virus threats, lost kids that have never been missing and petitions that will not work and will not be accepted by anyone!
My e-mail manners areas follows......
1. I never forward an email with information in it with out checking it out as to wether it is true or false.
2. I ALWAYS remove the address of the person who sent the mail to me and any old addresses left on it from previous senders before forwarding and email!
3. I HATE the little arrows at the beginning of every line left from forwarding by some email programs and ALWAYS delete them before sending the message on.
4. I ALWAYS remove any advertising at the bottom ov every email before sending it on.
5. If I have to open multiple pages to get to the email, I FORWARD FROM THE LAST PAGE opened so who ever I send that letter on to does NOT have to go thru any extra pages.
6. I do not send emails to group addresses. I click them one at a time so I do not send something to someone I think they might not like, will find offensive or might be too busy to mess with.
And last but not least....
5. I ALWAYS SEND BCC:(blind carbon copy) FOR MORE THAN ONE EMAIL ADDRESS!!!!!!!!!!!

I was soundly told off by a friend for using the reply all ....she said I should send the e-mail to myself and put all the recipients in the Bcc box ,that way I was protecting those precious address.

I've been using e-mail heavily for nine years, and far less in the couple of years preceding this.

Most of my friends use e-mail. It's just so much easier when sending messages out to groups. Only two of us ever use BCC though. This led to a conversation between fifteen of us, comprising some two hundred e-mails in half an hour. While they still don't use BCC, that doesn't happen now because we just don't use reply all.

I use BCC whenever sending to lists of people in clubs and groups where they don't know each other, however I find I prefer not to when sending a message to a group of friends for a few reasons:

-If you're organising something and someone has a question or correction, often others have the same concerns. If the first one does a reply all, you don't end up with dozens of the same question.

-There are events like parties that you don't know who else is invited to, or which are supposed to be a surprise. Talk about it to someone who you shouldn't and you'll drop yourself or your friends in it. I've been in more of those situations than I care for. However if you've received an invite by e-mail, and you see the other person's address on the list, you can talk to them about it without fear.

Really there is no blanket rule for this; it's a matter of using your own discretion to decide on the most appropriate action to take.

Talk as how you would to another in person

I like the BCC I know a lot of people who do not want their e-mail address shared with the world.But you are all invited to see my pictures at dotphoto.com /ohreally I know I should edit out many of them and up date the newer shots that are better I'M YELLING TO LET YOU KNOW IF YOU E-MAIL ME I'll give you a password so you can down load them free.Spell check is good.I find a lot of wrong information in books.If the correction was correct ,do it gently.I get migrains from onions and garlic.But my "friends" still try to pioson me.They get insulted if I will not eat their cooking.My dad said, "It's a tuff life in a ruff city"I really try to get my facts right.Then there are people who just like to stir up the pot.

E-mail is very versatile and should not be misused. Good e-mails are welcome, but spam is most unwelcome. It is cost effective and quick and easy. It has now become one of the preferred means of communication. It has global reach and is very speedy.

First, talking about Gordon's "Reply to all". I can see circumstances where an email recipient might want to "Reply to all". Actually, there can be email discussions among several or many people. But, generally, if you've got an issue with or wish to make a correction or comment to the sender, then I think you should simply "Reply" to the sender. Others may not wish to hear from you. Heck, they may not even know you and might feel their privacy was slightly invaded if they got a reply from you.

Now, about my "Subject" (Include part of the previous message with your reply). I would like some comments or feedback about this, please. I receive more than several emails a day, and they're all important to me. I have only one sender/friend who will reply to my emails and NOT include the previous message (thread) or even a little bit of the previous message. If I was only corresponding with this sender/friend it might not be difficult to understand or reference where we were in our email conversation ... but ... and it's a big butt ... this sender's reply may come days (and numerous other emails) later, and it never includes even a bit of the previous thread. Now, I know many AOL users do this, simply because they're clueless as to how to include some of the previous message in their replies ... and I'm only guessing that perhaps AOL doesn't do this by default. I know that folks that do this are not intentionally trying to frustrate me, but nevertheless it makes me freakin' crazy. I often have to go back to my "Sent" folder and dig up the last message I sent this person, just to try to recall what the hell we were talkin' about. I have tried to explain to my friend that this truly bugs me, but my friend says, "None of my other friends mention this." Am I making a big deal out of nothing? Can somone point me to an email etiquette "rule" that deals with this? Does this happen to you? Would you find it frustrating? ....... Do you like Sushi? (I just threw that last bit in there to make my comment at least a little interesting).

There are several do's and don'ts in the world of email that I have either done or witnessed:

1. If you are sending to multiple people who don't all know each other and may not want to, use the "bcc" field. If all your recipients know or should know one another anyway, park the addresses in either "To" or "cc," as appropriate. A work department should all be communicating regularly in any case; "bcc" therefore seems inappropriate.
If you are planning to forward one contact's information to another, get the first person's permission first! If not, you may have an angry or even ex-contact!
2. FLAMING is a big no-no. If the available email format does not permit italics or bold or anything else, notify the recipient(s) at the opening of your email that ALL CAPS is meant instead of one of those, and indicate which one.
3. Unless it is an emergency, allow the recipient(s) ample time to respond. If it is an emergency, type "Time Sensitive" or something other than "URGENT!" into the subject line; many SPAM emails contain "URGENT!"
4. Make sure your message is carefully worded, as well as spell- and grammar-checked. If you are translating into or from another language, make sure your translation program is a good one before you use it.
5. Make sure you consider your recipient(s)' time zone, if it is different from yours.
6. If you don't receive a response within the timeframe you need - wanting a response is not the same as needing one - try a phone call! Again, keep the time difference, if there is one, in mind.
7. If you receive an erroneous or offensive multi-recipient email, don't hit "Reply All." Instead, email the sending individual and urge him/her to email the other folks themselves.
If it's something "crucial," like a false warning about a commonly used drug, send a separate reply to all parties that this warning is an error and leave it at that.
8. Before sending or forwarding "warning" or "action required" emails, verify with hoax sites like UrbanLegend.com that the message is accurate. If it isn't, and you don't send it, your contacts will appreciate that you didn't clutter their email inboxes!
9. To sum it up: If you wouldn't want to receive the email you're sending, odds are your addressee(s) wouldn't, either!

Others have touched on CC and BCC, another option is to creat groups (you can link one address to multiple groups), you should have the option to tick a box saying not to show the list.

Also always ensure when you 'forward' an eamail, such as one containing a joke/funny, that you make sure you delete any reference to the person who sent it on to you.

Tip: create an eamail address for yourself just for on line registering or memberships, that way if you suddenly find yourself with lots of spam, you can create a new one, go into your profiles and change it to the new one then delete the old and it should give you a break from junk email for a while.

I can't read most of the posts on this now too big thread, but the ones I do see are good. However, most of what I see relate to "personal email" etiquette. I believe there are differences between "work email" etiquette and "personal email" etiquette. In a work environment, email is a tool and both the senders and recipients of email are equally responsible to know how to use that tool effectively. Employees should manage their email; how and when to use email, how to distinguish between important, archive-able email and transitory email, how to file and store email in a consistent hierarchy that complements other document storage.

As an email administrator for a government agency, I just want to share a few points which I think are important but haven't seen yet.

If you are addressed in the TO line of an email, then you must reply if needed. If you are addressed in the CC line of an email, then you should not reply to any question or concern in the email because you are not the TO addressee. CC stands for Courtesy Copy and those addressees are there for CYA purposes only. As a CC if you believe you have something to contribute, call the sender and share you input then ask or let that person know that you will reply. In work email, you should never use BC, Blind Copy, addresses unless you are trying to be deceptive about something.

If your business is time sensitive, do not use email as your only method of correspondence. I can not emphasize this enough. For goodness sakes, if its that important pick up the phone and make a call.

Keep your email simple. An old rule of thumb I got in high school seems appropriate: a) use simple, common words when writing; b) try to keep sentences under 10 words long; c) try to keep paragraphs under 10 sentences long. I would add d) definitely keep your email under 10 paragraphs long and put a blank line between each paragraph. If your email has to be longer or more complicated then this rule of thumb then write it out in a word processor and attach it to an email.

Do not send attachments that are more then 2mb - 3mb large. If you don't know how to see the size of your email or attachment, then get training on basic computer skills. While you are in training, have them show you how to resize those ridiculously large photos you took with your 2000megapixel camera that are too big to show normally on a computer screen anyway (yeah, a little bitterness on this subject). Microsoft Paint can do it simply and easily.

Never send personal pictures via the corporate email system unless you want to be fired. Just because you haven't been warned about "abusing email privileges" doesn't mean that they don't know YOU are doing it.

Don't put your own email address in your signature block unless it is different then the email address from which you are sending. It's confusing to some and considered puffing by most professionals. Each organization may have their own guidelines but where ever possible keep the signature block short and simple; your full name, title, and one phone number.

All email created on a corporate email system can be considered official correspondence from that organization. PLEASE do not include religious, witty, sage, or historical quotes nor other personal opinions in your signature block. Not only could you be invading your recipients' privacy by imposing your personal opinions and beliefs on them, it could also be construed as improper, unethical, and even illegal activity if, for instance you are the head of an government organization and your business related email to all employees includes specific religious quotations or suggestions.

Even if your organization has network solutions for storing email, you should create folders or directories in your email application that match your job duties. For example, I have folders for new accounts, name changes, requests for email tracking, etc. Within each of those folders I have other folders that are specific by department or individuals. When I get email requests those requests sit in my in box only until I complete the work, then I move all related email to the appropriate (sub)folder. On average there is never more then 2-7 email in my in box. Not only does this create organization for me, it also creates an intelligent filing system that my organization can use in case I'm not available.

In this day and age, if you think you are too busy to learn how to use your work email effectively then you need to move aside and let someone more competent then you take over your position.

Please post other opinions about work email etiquette.

I feel that my email address is just like my phone number or mailing address. Personell. I did not give it to you so you should not use it as a reply or add me to your address book. Here are the rules I use when sending emails.
HOW TO FORWARD EMAIL - A tutorial AND plea to those who forward received email

Every time you forward an email information is left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their email addresses & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor soul to get a virus and his or her computer can send that virus to every email address that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those addresses and sell them, or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over a nickel! How do you stop it?

Procedures for Forwarding received email:
(1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them. Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you know how to do. It only takes a few seconds. On many email programs you MUST click the "Forward" button first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and headers of the message. If you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be able to edit the message at all. Or, on AOL and some other email programs, you may simply either highlight the entire forwarded message (or choose SELECT ALL), then click COPY, and finally PASTE it to a new, blank email window. Then you can selectively delete all the headers & footers with everyone's email addresses, edit the Subject line, edit the entire text, or ad your own comments at the beggining or the end.

(2) Whenever you send an email to more than one person, do NOT use the To: or CC: fields for adding email addresses. Always use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) field for listing the email addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see their own email address. If you don't see your BCC: option, click on where it says To: and your address list will appear. Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it -- it's that easy. When you send to BCC: your message will automatically say: "Undisclosed Recipients in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it. (Address the email to your own email address, address the rest as BCCs). In Juno put ( ) around the addresses in the Cc box to make them blind to other's eyes.

(3) Remove any "FW :" in the subject line. You can rename the subject if you wish, or even fix misspellings in the subject line or the main text.

(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual email (page) you are reading. Ever get those emails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it?
(I hate opening so many pages.) By Forwarding from the actual page you wish someone to view, you stop them from having to open many emails just to see what you sent. Or highlight the subject matter from the attachment and do a COPY/PASTE into the outgoing message.

Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15 people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses. Email petitions are worthless. Petitions have to have a persons printed name, actual signature and address. So don't waste time sending them around the Internet. Send an email to your congressman or the president or to whomever you want to hear what you have to say.

A FACT: The completed petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient. Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and email address on a petition. (Actually, if you think about it, who's supposed to send the petition in to whatever cause it supports? And don't believe the ones that say that the email is being traced, it just isn't so!)

One of the main ones I hate is the one that says something like, "Send this email to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen." Or sometimes they'll just tease you by saying 'something really cute will happen.' IT ISN'T GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Believe me, I'm still seeing some of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!)

Don't let the bad luck ones scare you either, doesnt happen!

(5) Before you forward an 'Amber Alert', or a 'Virus Alert', or some of the other warnings floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS! Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at www.Snopes.com If they don't have any research on it, Google it. Search on the name(s) of the people claiming to author it and see if there is legitimate information to support it. It's really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please don't pass it on.

Please "clean" all email you forward by removing all of the clutter & STOP forwarding junk mail with potential attendant viruses!

Finally, here's an idea! Let's send this to everyone we know (but please delete my address). This is probably something that SHOULD be forwarded.
And lastly. You can copy & paste to your word processor to save and send again to those who did not quite get it the first time.

One should NEVER send out emails to multiple people when those people do not 'know' each other UNLESS ALL the recipients are in the BCC line.
One way spammers get one's email address is because people are too darn lazy to delete email addresses before forwarding, I put a 'please do not forward unless you remove my email address first' on ALL my emails.
If I want the world to know my email address I'll publish it in the N.Y.Times.
If people insist on adding my name in the 'To' line when sending out to lots of people I first ask them politely not to, if they continue to do so then I remove them from my email list and inform them I have done so, I've never had anyone get nasty over this but there's always a first time .
Basically one should respect other peoples privacy, you wouldn't put posters around town with your friends home address and 'phone number on it why treat emails any differently.