Dear folks whose email addresses are part of large mailing lists (common in academia and many professions including mine of lawyering) – when someone mistakenly sends a question or comment to everyone on the list instead of just one intended recipient, there is no need for you (and I use this in the broad sense to mean everyone on the list) to reply to everyone one the list with any of the following: 1) what is this list; 2) why am I receiving this email; 3) was this email was intended for me; 4) can you remove me from this list. Clearly, you do not understand the difference between reply and reply to all. A fact that should be made all that more evident by the mounting emails in my inbox between idiots who are asking the aforementioned enumerated questions and the fucking idiots writing “do not reply to all.” I swear, why does it take dozens and dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of email exchanges between the morons wondering why they are on the list and the morons who ask do not reply to all but then fucking reply to all (and these people are lawyers, who went to law school, and passed a rigorous multi day bar examination) before people just realize that there was a mistake and ignore it and then the problem goes away. I’m going to wake up tomorrow and have to sort through all the idiocy to find, you know, emails relevant to my work. And fuck, if you sending a response to everyone on the list after about two dozen similar responses to everyone on the list asking to be removed and you include the additional phrase “annoying and interruptive,” you are part of the problem and likely do not understand the concept of irony. — Anonymous

Bang bang, choo-choo train, let me see you shake that thang. Wm. Steven Humphrey is the editor-in-chief of the Portland Mercury and has held the job since 2000. (So don’t get any funny ideas.)

13 replies on “I, Anonymous: Reply All”

  1. Why isn’t this the I,Anon instead of something retarded about someone wanting to be a volunteer lavatory-cleaner?

    This reply all debacle happens to me about once a week. Half the time it’s in regards to high-end IT stuff about databases and server migrations. Meaning, these are people who should fucking know about the difference between: reply, replay all, bcc and cc.

    Or maybe these people should learn to set up actual listserv software that is easily manageable or maybe also learn how to use auto-filters on their email so that they don’t get disturbed by bullshit emails. Whatever. Everyone who isn’t me is a complete fucking jack-ass and is still and idiot.

  3. This person is right, but who cares?

    Just delete everything with the same subject line in 5 seconds or less and be thankful your life doesn’t have actual problems (beyond your ragey whinyness).

  6. Hmm. I just set up *rules* in my mail to auto-sort the bullshit out. It’s easy. It’s kinda the *adult* thing to do. Unless you like looking like a dickhead lawyer. How much schooling did you attend in order to not know how to run an email client?

  9. I’m generally just too lazy to change the reply email address to the person who sent it, rather than the default of the entire mailing list, which is usually just represented by one email.

  11. @Demondog, To a whiny bitch lawyer, technically correct is the best kind of correct.*

    Also, not sure where everyone is getting male gender from here.

    * Bureaucrats too, for you fellow Futurama nerds.

  12. I particularly tech listserves where we spend 30-40 emails discussing how an original question was inappropriate for this listserve. That’s the best!

  13. I love posts like that. I harvest them, sell the email addresses, then troll them all with something scandalous about the original sender.

    You betcha they use BCC with the next post.

    I still love the one from that lawyer advising to inflate billable hours by at least 20% that was replied all.

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