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Papyrus News
naughty and nice

December 27, 2001: This message was distributed by Papyrus News. Feel free to forward this message to others, preferably with this introduction. For info on Papyrus News, including how to (un)subscribe or access archives, see <http://www.gse.uci.edu/markw/papyrus-news.html>.

Now that Christmas is over, here's my report on people's naughty and nice computer-mediated communication behavior this year.

NAUGHTY!!! (shame on you)

Multiple Recipients on the "To:" Line

If you ever need to contact a lot of people by e-mail, please do not ever cut and paste lots of e-mail addresses on the "to:" line. Inevitably, somebody will reply to all, and somebody else will reply to all, and eventually you'll have a difficult-to-stop chain going on. Fortunately, there's a very easy alternate method: just put one e-mail address on the "to:" line (e.g., your own), and then put all the other e-mail addresses on the "bcc:" line. Everybody will still get your message but they won't see (or be able to reply to) all the other recipients.

Unsigned E-Mail

Why do some people write email messages without signing them (especially if they are writing for the first time)? Don't you hate having to go to the return address (which itself might not include the name) and trying to figure out who you're corresponding with?

Please Unsubscribe Me...

Every Papyrus News message includes a link at the very top to a Web page with information on subscribing or unsubscribing. If somebody follows the instructions and has trouble unsubscribing, I don't mind helping them. But when people are too lazy even to look at the instructions and want me to unsubscribe them instead, that gets a bit irritating (especially when multipled by x number of times over a week or month).

Vacation Mail

If you insist on using vacation mail (and I use it myself), please set it so that it only replies to personally-addressed messages (i.e, with your own email address on the "to:" line) and not to collective message (e.g., from Papyrus News). It's not too fun to get several vacation mail messages every time I send out a message. (If you don't know how to do this, check with your systems administrator, since vacation mail varies from system to system). If you have already checked with your system administrator and you are 100% sure that you are unable to set your vacation mail that way, please drop me a short note so that at least I know that you tried (and I can then set a filter to automatically discard your vacation mail responses).

www.whyistherenohttp.com

When listing URLs in e-mail messages, please put the "http://" in front of the address (i.e., don't just start it with www...) Why? Well, many people's e-mail systems (including my own) are set so that any URL with "http://" in front of it is "hot-clickable", i.e., I can just click on it and automatically go to the Website. However, without the "http:", I have to cut and paste the address into a browser. Maybe it only takes a few seconds, but when you multiple that by many URLs, etc. This is particularly irking when the URL is in somebody's signature (which means that everybody receives the http-less URL) or in a public announcement for a conference or event.

Websites without Directories or Contact Information or Homepage Links

Don't you hate when you go to a university Website and there's no directory on the home page with personnel? Along the same lines, isn't it irritating to go to a Website and not be able to easily find somebody's e-mail address or other contact info? Or when you are on an internal page of a site and there's no easy way to get back to the main page?

NICE!!! (thank you!!!!!!!)

E-mail messages with...
- Clear subject lines
- Short paragraphs, with a blank line between paragraphs
- URLs for more information (when appropriate)
- Clear response dates (if an action is requested)
- Polite thoughts
- Warm greetings
- Humor
- Appreciation

Websites with...
- Directories (where appropriate)
- Site maps (where appropriate)
- Few graphics and fast downloads
- Nothing flashing or moving

Now, let's see who will be naughty and nice next year!
Mark



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Last updated: December 28, 2001 in Hot Metal Pro 6.0