Spam Is Not the Worst of It: Introduction

I am a judgmental bastard, which is my primary qualification for being a contributor to this "webjournal of thoughtful dissent". Even though I usually try to avoid expressing it to them, I have little patience with ignorant people and less with the incompetent. I freely admit all of this. I'm one of those sons-of-bitches that believes a person ought to severely limit his/her driving until s/he knows how to change a flat tire or add a quart of oil, if it becomes necessary. I am particularly irritated with email sins, for several reasons, including: It has become so easy to get connected to the Internet that any fool can do so without learning the basics; Of all the uses of the Net, the most commonly used -- with the least facility -- is email; There are many web sites dedicated to the subject of email and other Net etiquette, but my in-box indicates that few people are aware of them -- or maybe these guides are just too polite for the information to sink in. I'm not good at polite. I'm much better at straightforward -- laced with sarcasm. There are too many 'drivers' on the Internet who are not only unable to change a tire and check their oil, they don't seem to realize that driving down the sidewalk is unacceptable behavior. I'm tired of being run over by people who don't know the rules, or don't think they are important. This isn't about indiscriminate unsolicited email, i.e., spam. There is already a consensus of opinion that spam is evil and that gelding might be too good for those who do it. "If this email has been sent in error…" my ass! In case you don't know, replying to spam to be taken off a list confirms your email address and gets you on more spam lists. At least you can discard it with one click, or filter it out. [Worse than spam are advertisements in my credit card bill envelope through which I have to hunt, just to find the actual bill. I've begun sending all that pulp back to them with my check.] Otherwise decent people come across as abusive morons by making email mistakes because they simply don't know better. The result is worse than spam, since I know the sender. I have often had to choose between writing a friendly (usually) reply in attempt to enlighten them -- and possibly embarrassing them, which will often piss them off at me no matter how polite I was -- or let them continue to make fools of themselves, in order to keep from hurting their feelings. I don't like the quandary; so, I am publishing this list of what gripes me about email. Some of what I'll cover has been mentioned in other etiquette guides; some of these I haven't seen elsewhere. Not all bad email practices have the same annoyance level, so I will rate them on a graphic scale according to how much they annoy me. In a few cases, I provide possible solutions to these problems -- not that I expect the software companies to cooperate and add my solutions to future email clients. Email Etiquette and Related Gripes