I read a post today by Peter Bogert and it got me to thinking about all the forwards I get from friends and family.? Look, I’ve gotta be honest with y’all, when I get a forward my usual routine is I open it up, scroll through it and look for pictures.? If there’s a link at the bottom I almost never click on it.? Clicking that link takes me away from my email, and I want to finish reading my email, not follow a rabbit trail through the land of the Web.? But sometimes I do read forwards, provided they’re prepared well.? If you really do want me to read a forward from you, here are a few tips.
- Edit the forwarding history from the top of the email.? There’s nothing more frustrating than scrolling through hundreds of email addresses looking for whatever it was that you wanted me to read.? Delete all those addresses, make it obvious what you want me to read.
- Send it just to me.? Or, similarly, BCC it to me.? BCC is a feature that every email program has, it stands for “blind carbon copy” and should be used liberally.? To use it, insert one address in the “To” section and then if you want to send it to many people, insert each additional address into the “BCC” section.? Then, when I get the email it will only contain two addresses, yours and mine.? I will have no idea who else you sent it to.
- The subject line of the email should be somewhat descriptive.? Subjects like “Just Do It!” and “This is For You!” make my finger move to the delete button faster than anything.? If you get a forward from someone and you want to send it on to me it’s OK to change the subject line.
- At the very top of the email put a short note that tells me why you sent this to me.? It adds a little bit of a personal touch to an otherwise faceless email.
- Before you send me an email full of “cool pictures” or “sidewalk drawings” keep in mind that I’ve been on the Net for a while now.? Chances are I saw those pictures, drawings or sand sculptures when I was in college.? I understand that when you first get an email address you find all this stuff for the first time and it’s exciting; you want to share it with everyone else.? But be honest with yourself, not everyone will be as excited as you are.? Enjoy the pictures, set them as your desktop and move on.
- Don’t believe everything you read.? You will never get money for signing an email petition or list or whatever.? That’s called chain mail and is garbage.? Similarly, email petitions never changed anything.? No law was ever overthrown by email petitions, no politician ever changed his mind about anything based on an email petition.? Those are chain mail too.? Don’t send me chain mail; in fact, don’t send anyone chain mail.
- My biggest pet peeve is the chain mail that ends with something like “If you delete this then it shows that you want Satan to win” or “If you don’t send this on then you’re showing that you are pro-terrorism.”? As soon as I see that line I revel in deleting the email.
- Last but not least, before you forward me something that’s just “unbelievable” make sure it’s not an urban legend by looking for it on Snopes.com.
Now I open it up to you.? What do YOU hate about email forwards?? What tips would you give to people wanting to forward you something? Be nice.
