NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article, October 2010
Dick’s Clicks
By Dick Ramette, President,
Computer Club of Green Valley, AZ Summer 2010 Issue, Green Bytes

Rwramette (at) mindspring.com
(click to email author)

Dick’s Clicks By Dick Ramette, President, Computer Club of Green Valley, AZ Summer 2010 Issue, Green Bytes Rwramette (at) mindspring.com

This month I clicked on "email etiquette" in Google, and found 163,000 hits, with myriad suggestions for doing the right thing. I realize that many of you do not need this, but others, including my own kith and kin, should take note of these pet peeves. Please take the quiz:

1. A friend emails you with the subject "Meg's birthday," and attaches three nice pics of the little sweetie with her cake and candles. Do you immediately reply and comment on the happy occasion, leaving the subject unchanged?
2. A month later, when you email this same friend about your successful hip replacement, and you use Reply to get started, do you use something relevant, like "I'm so Hippy," instead of lazily leaving "Meg's birthday" as the subject line?
3. When a friend sends you anything welcome, do you give them the courtesy of a prompt reply/thank you, knowing that they'll appreciate that you received it and cared enough to respond?
4. When you Reply, do you delete all traces of the incoming email, especially any pics or a long attachment, thus saving clutter on your friend's hard disk which, after all, already has a copy of what was sent?
5. Someone emails you a scary warning of impending doom if you get an email with a certain clickable link. Or, it might be an amazing come on, saying that Microsoft will pay you cash for every person to whom you relay this message, so they can check a new method of email tracking. You are begged to forward this to everyone in your address book. You notice that this email has already been successively forwarded several times, each time accumulating long visible lists of email addresses of previous recipients.

Do you take time to check a hoax or urban legend web site, such as http://www.snopes.com or http://www.scambusters.org, to see if this message has validity? Most likely you'll find that it has been debunked, perhaps still making the rounds after several years. Do you spare others needless anxiety and wasted time by simply deleting such emails? They're meant to deceive gullible readers, which is rather funny given that "gullible" is not even in the dictionary.

6. When you Forward an email that is legit, perhaps a collection of cute rattlesnake pics, do you delete any previously-accumulated email addresses? When you write to multiple email addresses, do you Send using BCC (blind carbon copies)? In both cases, it's a matter of protecting email address privacies.

7. For all emails, before clicking on Send, do you read your composition to find typos, poor phrasing, bad punctuation and misspelled words? Do you avoid all upper-case words except when you want to be read as SHOUTING? Do you minimize those !!!!s? It's all a matter of caring, courtesy and competence.

8. Did you get a perfect score, without "No" answers to any of the questions?

Thought of the Month: "Type unto others as you would have them type unto you."

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