Forwarding E-Mail

E-mail: The Good, the Bad and the really ugly!
If you are like me, you enjoy hearing from friends and relatives via e-mail. I don't really care if they are slaying dragons or just watching paint dry or grass grow, I would like them to take pen (keyboard) in hand and talk to me. I wish they would take the time even to tell me that they didn't do anything yesterday… I probably didn't either! The point is, today you thought enough of me to type a few lines and say, "hi." Do that and I'll bore you to tears with inane information from the Wilderness household. Yes, I really want to hear from them but not with a Fw… a forward that someone else wrote.

Of course you know I'm committing virtual-social-life suicide by admitting this. The people that only send me 'forwards' (Fw) will now stop communicating totally. I'm sorry about that, in reality, some of those forwards are really quite funny or interesting! I don't want to demean any missives I get but gee, could they just say, "Hi, how are ya?" every once in awhile?

Beyond that, if you really find something that you must share with somebody, there a few rules about forwarding e-mails that really should be followed. As a matter of fact, I'm advocating the establishment of a World Association of NetworK E-mail Regulators. The idea is that these people would prepare a test to be taken before anyone is allowed to forward e-mail. Once passing the test the applicant would receive a permit from the Association allowing them to legally forward any e-mail they wished.

Until then, however, please consider these few suggestions on forwarding E-mails:

Forward only the e-mail that contains the information you want to forward. Don't forward the e-mail you got that forwarded another e-mail that forwarded yet another e-mail, etc. People are wary of opening e-mails when they don't know who sent them. Anything could be lurking in the next one to be opened. Besides, who wants to be the fifth in line to be told how much they are loved or what a great friend they are? Also, when you do that, all the addresses of all the people that have been sent the original e-mail are being sent out again, much to the glee of spammers and miscreants on the net.

'After you click on forward,' remove all the addresses of people appearing on the e-mail. Do whatever is necessary to remove these addresses. Highlight and delete or do whatever you know how to do. If you don't do this, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for someone to get a virus in their computer that will send itself to every other e-mail address that has come across their computer and mayhem will result.

Also, remove the Fw: in the subject line, that's just redundant. Some people I know just delete messages with Fw: in the subject line as soon as they get them. (Usually they won't say anything because they don't want to hurt the sender's feelings.)

If you are forwarding the e-mail to more than one person, use the BCC: (blind carbon copy) line to enter the addresses unless you 'really' want everyone to see everyone else's address for some reason (and you really don't.) If BCC: is not showing, click on the 'Help' button or ask a friend.

If the e-mail tells you to pass it on to ten or one hundred people or something good or bad will happen to you, DON'T BELIEVE IT! I mean really… think about it. To many people that kind of talk will get the e-mail deleted faster than a teenager maxes-out their text message limit.

One last thought about e-mails is the trap that I have fallen into in the past and probably will again in spite of my attempts to the contrary; e-mail can be very impersonal and misleading as to the writer's intent. There are no facial expressions, tonal inflections nor is there any body language to clarify what is being written. It is especially easy for humour to come across as a slight or an insult. If you are joking make it quite clear… say something like:
PS: I'm kidding about the World Association of NetworK E-mail Regulators.