12.02.05

A plea for email etiquette

Posted in Dreams, Web, Technology, SocialIssues at 5:15 pm by Danny Dawson

To: Myself
BCC: A whole lot of people
Subject: [Fwd: Fwd: Re: Slow Dance]
Body:

For an expose on this hoax, read here:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/s/slowdance.htm

If you would like to call Dr. Shields directly and ask him if he had anything to do with this email, please find his contact information available here:
http://www.aecom.yu.edu/dmb/shields.htm
If you don’t feel like clicking that, here’s his office number 718-430-2653, ext 3281.

Forwarding an email without editing it for concision and deleting the list of past recipients exposes the email addresses of past recipients to everyone to whom you send the email, as well as anyone to whom the email may be forwarded in the future.

If you truly insist on passing along a nice story, poem, joke, or some information you feel is important, please keep in mind the following three recommendations:
1. Don’t expose the email addresses of others to other people. Delete unnecessary addresses from the body of the email, and use the BCC field whenever the email that you’re sending doesn’t require people to “Reply-All”. In case anyone is reading this is wondering how I got your email address - someone else you know forgot this step. You can’t find your address below? That’s because I deleted it.
2. If “factual” claims are made in the body of the email you’re sending along, try searching Google for “hoax” along with a couple keywords from the body of the message. For instance: search Google for “Dennis Shields hoax” and you’ll find 51,800 results debunking the content of this email.
3. Keep emails concise. If you just want to pass along a poem or joke, delete everything but the poem or joke. You already read the email when it was sent to you, and you know what parts of it are interesting and what parts aren’t. Delete the garbage out of courtesy to others.

I’m sorry if you feel that I’ve wasted your time with this email. I’m sorry if you were merely an “innocent recipient” on the list and you already follow similar guidelines that you set for yourself, and thus you feel you have no need to have read this.

But at the same time, someone you know doesn’t already have similar “guidelines of email etiquette” that they follow, and remaining quiet about it won’t change the situation. Someone else is taking liberties with your contact information, passing it off to others, likely without your permission.

I, for one, can’t stay quiet about that forever, and I feel it’s inappropriate to complain about what I feel to be “a lack of manners” if I passively let every indiscretion slide. Here’s my attempt to do something about it.

If you agree with me and would like to share these words with other people you know, in order to spread awareness of email etiquette and save a lot of word-weary email users some time in the long run, please do. (I’ll be posting it on my weblog at http://quasistoic.org as well.)

But delete my email address from the body before you hit send.

Thanks,
-Danny Dawson

PostScript - I love you, Mom.
Post-PostScript - Racedrvr: My sincerest apologies to you. I did see the Snopes link you passed along about the email hoax, which I’ll include here for the sake of others:
http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/medical/slowdance.asp

On 12/2/05, My Mom wrote:
>
>
> This poem was written by a terminally ill young girl in a New York Hospital .
> It was sent by a medical doctor - Make sure to read what is in the closing statement AFTER THE POEM.
>
> SLOW DANCE
>
> Have you ever watched kids
> On a merry-go-round?
> Or listened to the rain
> Slapping on the ground?
> Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight?
> Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?
> You better slow down.
> Don’t dance so fast.
> Time is short.
> The music won’t last.
>
> Do you run through each day
> On the fly?
> When you ask How are you?
> Do you hear the reply?
> When the day is done
> Do you lie in your bed
> With the next hundred chores
> Running through your head?
> You’d better slow down
> Don’t dance so fast.
> Time is short.
> The music won’t last.
>
> Ever told your child,
> We’ll do it tomorrow?
> And in your haste,
> Not see his sorrow?
> Ever lost touch,
> Let a good friendship die
> Cause you never had time
> To call and say,”Hi”
> You’d better slow down.
> Don’t dance so fast.
> Time is short.
> The music won’t last .
> When you run so fast to get somewhere
> You miss half the fun of getting there.
> When you worry and hurry through your day,
> It is like an unopened gift….
> Thrown away.
> Life is not a race.
> Do take it slower
> Hear the music
> Before the song is over.
>
> ——————–
>
> FORWARDED
>
> E-MAILS ARE TRACKED TO OBTAIN THE TOTAL COUNT.
>
> Dear All:
>
> PLEASE pass this mail on to everyone you know -
> even to those you don’t know!
> It is the request of a special girl who
> will soon leave this world due to cancer.
> This young girl has 6 months left to live, and as her dying wish,
> She wanted to send a letter telling everyone to live
> their life to the fullest, since she never will.
> She’ll never make it to prom, graduate from high
> school, or get married and have a family of her own.
> By you sending this to as many people as possible,
> you can give her and her family a little hope,
> because with every name that this is sent to,
> The American Cancer Society
> will donate 3 cents per name to her treatment and recovery plan.
> One guy sent this to 500 people! So I know that we can
> at least send it to 5 or 6 —
> (just think ,it could be you one day).
> It’s not even your money, just your time!
>
> PLEASE PASS ON AS A LAST REQUEST
>
> Dr. Dennis Shields, Professor
> Department of Developmental and Molecular Biology
> 1300 Morris Park Avenue
> Bronx , New York 10461
>

–
Danny Dawson
http://quasistoic.org

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