The evils of "Reply All"

Confession time.
I have a temper.

Some people might be saying, "well, duh," about now. Those who I have sliced and diced with my tongue. The thing is, it takes a lot to make me blow up. Stupidity, rudeness, obliviousness, nasty self-righteousness. It has to build up over time.

I've had a problem with a number of sites and groups lately, where if you make the mistake of contacting them for information, they put you on their mailing list, without asking you. And no matter how many times you ask them to take you off their list, they keep sending the information.

I had finally gone beyond the "enough" point with the newsletter editor of  a writing group 2 hours away. I attended a book fair they sponsored  probably 5 years ago, and was immediately put  on the mailing list for their newsletter. I did the usual -- marked the envelope "return to sender" and underneath that "take me off your list" and tossed it back in the mail.

The newsletters kept coming. I threw some out. Others I marked "return" and "take me off your list." I even opened some and used email to ask her to leave me the heck alone. She apologized  -- and the newsletters kept coming.

A few weeks ago, I sent another email -- and found myself on the E-MAIL list. Where I received all the "reply all" responses from  members of the group. Nothing irks me more than getting deluged with "reply all" messages and "inside" or "personal" information from people I don't even know.

I again demanded  my name be removed from her lists. Another apology and promise it would be done.

The incompetent twit LIED.
Maybe a week later -- you guessed it. Another email news release for the group.
Fed up, I hit "reply all" and wrote a general plea to the group for someone to intervene.

And then I had second thoughts -- give the twit one more chance -- so I saved the email in the "send later" file, wrote her another email and told her if she sent me one more email, I was sending to the entire group.

Here's the thing -- later that day, I had a huge editing job I needed to email, so I wrote up the cover letter and attached the file off-line, then went online to send it. And didn't remember the email I had saved to "send later."

GULP.

I had some interesting responses. One person analyzing why she was incapable of acting on my requests and then demands. Someone else responded that he was also getting unwanted newsletters, and one guy who said to just block her email address, so I wouldn't receive anything from her.

Here's the thing -- REPLY ALL.
People in this  group hit "reply all" to respond to whatever is in the newsletters. Which means everyone who was sent the original e-mail gets the response. And do you think that blocking the original sender's email address will automatically block all responses?

*sigh*
I should have  deleted that general plea for help, instead of saving it for later, in case I needed it.

I hereby apologize to all the people in that group -- especially the people who are also victims of this woman's technological incompetence, or laziness, or rudeness, or need to feel powerful.

Hitting "reply all" is rude. It inflicts  unwanted information on people you don't know, who couldn't care less what you are thinking.

I hereby promise from now on never to hit "reply all" unless it's for a very small group of people, all of whom  know each other, or who are working on the same project or goal.