Thursday, September 6, 2018

Email Etiquette and Google Forums

 

USING GOOGLEGROUPS AND EMAIL ETIQUETTE

We GoogleGroups as a way to communicate with all our subscribed members on matters of group business. Some complain that they are getting too many messages and the threads are long and confusing.

There are two solutions. Block all messages and get your information at the next meeting. Or, better, just set up your account to meet your needs.

If you choose to block, there's nothing we can do for you.

If you want to modify your account to meet your preferences, that's easy. Just do the following.

  • Log into the group you want to modify.

  • Find and click the settings button in the upper left of your screen to make sure that the menu is displayed.

  • Scroll down to My membership settings.

  • Select your email delivery preferences. 


NETICATE

If you're reading this, then you are among the millions of email users who are plagued by spam and junk mail. If you're not, skip the rest of this article.

I received a complaint intimating that a common group email practice is worse than spam. After thinking about it, I could see the plaintiff's point and how to mitigate the problem.

For those of you who may not be up to speed on cyber-babble let's clear up a couple of definitions. Junk mail is any correspondence, paper or electronic, having little or no interest or value to the recipient. Spam is electronic junk mail indiscriminately distributed to a multitude of recipients. Just because you don't like content doesn't make email spam. If you are part of a special interest group, email sent to you as a member of that group is not spam even if you think it’s junk.

Avoid sending junk mail to other members of your group. Email is an important and valuable business tool. When using email for business (and this includes Photography Club business too), avoid cluttering everyone's inboxes with trivial messages. If what you have to say is important for the whole group to hear, "Reply to all" may be appropriate. Otherwise a reply to the sender or another member of the group only may be more appropriate.

Keep in mind, that it takes less time and group effort to have a meeting using email, than trying to coordinate everyone’s busy schedules. Save that for when it’s important for everyone to be in the same room to make nice-nice.

Neticate—Meet Me at the Water Cooler

Remember the old days when everyone worked in “gopher-town” separated from each other by modular office space? Probably not. But you probably do remember that workers often gathered at the water cooler to break from the tedium and share some gossip. Not the worst idea to keep up morale.

Now that most of us work in home offices or really private chambers, we’ve replaced the water cooler with email and espresso. That’s why you get a flurry of spam that someone thinks is funny. Sometimes it is, most often it’s not. Before passing on that tidbit consider whether it’s something you would share at the water cooler or not. Also carefully consider to whom you want to share that gem. Many folks really don’t appreciate it.

Neticate—The Subject Line

Did you ever wonder what that line under the address block that says, “Subject:” is all about. If you’re like most folks you haven’t. You see most folks just ignore it. Try this at home. Find an email message that has been passed on from person to person several times.  You will probably find little relationship between the subject and the content of the top message. That’s because as the message was passed from person to person the message changed but not the subject line. It’s like the telephone game where one person whispers something to another person who then whispers it to the next and so forth.  By the time the last person gets the message , it has no resemblance to the original.  With email it’s the subject that gets out of whack.

So what’s proper Neticate?  Well, before passing the message on to the next person, take a few seconds to make sure that the subject line actually relates to the content of the email. And if you want the message to be opened by the recipient, make sure the subject line says something meaningful to the recipients. We always send club related email with LVNW Rotary in the subject line to let you decide whether or not to open it or ignore it.