Early on July 21, I received an e-mail from Roger Hoffmann inviting me to a barbecue, rally and fundraiser to support him in his race to be a Larimer County Commissioner. Because I don’t live in Larimer County and hadn’t heard of the guy, I was not planning to attend. Still, the e-mail wasn’t particularly annoying -- not something I'd call spam. I consider that label more appropriate for Viagra and porn ads and the people who desperately need me to send money to their foreign bank accounts.
I closed the message and was all set to move on with my day when the flood started. E-mail after e-mail from people who wanted to know how Roger Hoffmann got their information, and who were scolding him for daring to solicit their money.
Then there were the people who wanted to speculate about whose e-mail list Roger Hoffmann was using. Larimer Democrats? Save the Poudre Campaign? These e-mailers wanted to scold Larimer Dems and Save the Poudre Campaign for giving out their information. Then the Larimer Dems and Save the Poudre Campaign responded, denying that they gave out any information. There were also about a dozen people who felt the need to write things like "agreed," or had to say that they live out of state, or that they’re not even Democrats, or that they wanted to be removed from this list. That meant other people had to explain how they could unsubscribe. And finally, one brave soul wanted to defend Mr. Hoffmann and say we should all be grateful he’s running.
I read at least thirty responses to Roger Hoffmann’s barbecue invite before this final message came in after 5 p.m.:
Excuse me! Do you people realize you are copying ALL messages to ALL recipients. If you’re concerned about the wasted time an extra email or two may cause, you are making matters worse. You have all made your point(s) ad nauseum, now please get over it and stop filling my inbox! I’m guessing these folks got your points and this won’t happen again.
Cheers.
David Prawel
Though I was tempted to send off a quick "agreed" or "ditto," I restrained myself and decided to put in my two cents here instead.
It’s time we all learned a little e-mail etiquette. Less is more. Never hit "reply all" unless you have something meant for all.
And since when is getting invited to a barbecue a bad thing?
Roger, I wish you the best of luck in your race – but it might be time to update your e-mail list. -- Jessica Centers