After nearly 20 years of intensive email usage, without once ever having made the reply-all mistake, it finally happened. It’s more than a little mortifying that it happened in a class in which I’m supposed to be teaching Good Internet Practices and stuff, but, well, I suppose it provides the opportunity for a little object lesson.
What is that lesson? Well, “don’t be in such a hurry” might be a good one. Or “check the address line twice, especially if you’re working in a relatively unfamiliar interface.” Perhaps also “check the Google Group settings to be sure you really want every single reply to go to the entire group” (they’re now set in a way that gives you the option to reply to the message sender or to the group).
But mostly it’s just a reminder about how easy it is to slip up online and let private information wander where it shouldn’t. So, let it be a lesson to me, I suppose.
My apologies to all of you. See you in class tomorrow.
1 response so far ↓
starki09 // 28 February 2010 at 5.23 pm
If it makes you feel any better, let me regale you with the tale of my latest e-mail misstep.
I was working at KSPC one day, sending e-mails to various groups on campus, asking them to make station IDs/PSAs for KSPC. In my haste I sent an e-mail to the head of Men’s Blue & White starting off “Dear Mary,”. As you may be able to guess, the head of Men’s Blue & White is a male, and definetly not named Mary. I had no idea of the mistake until later, when my friend in Men’s Blue & White told me about “Some guy who addressed an e-mail to Jon “Dear Mary,” and Jon forwarded it to everyone and it was hilarious”. Oh damn, I thought that was totally me. I apologized, and Jon did eventually get back to me, but I hear he still has signed a few e-mails Jon “Who the f*$k is Mary?” Kaddish.
Mary is the director of Handbell Choir.