Rude or Uniformed?
A Site Visitor Writes:
I forwarded a certain photograph to a group of people I work with inside and outside my firm. One of the people on the e-mail list sent back to the whole list (whom she did not know) that the photo was a fake. She looked it up onwww.snopes.com. She also stated that “she always checked on the accuracy of things before she forwarded.” This went out to all the other people on my list.
I was not upset that the photo was not authentic. I was a little miffed that she sent to out to my list. But what I felt was really rude was her comment that “she always checked out her e-mails for accuracy before forwarding”. So, one would assume that I did not do a good job at these things or I would have done the same. I felt that her comment was really rude. What do you think? Lack of netiquette?
Seems one of the folks you sent to is an informed Netizen! Why you are sending this stuff on business time needs to be asked as well — but we’ll save that for another day (or you can view my previous posts on using company time to send non-business related e-mails — the most recent here.)
She did nothing wrong by letting everyone know the photo was not authentic if you had everyone’s e-mail address displayed. The number of folks who assume everything in an e-mail is true or accurate is astounding! Don’t we all get enough junk e-mail without having those who are uninformed (or don’t make the effort to be informed) sending more junk through the pipeline?
There are two things to address here. If you don’t want others on your list to know or respond to those listed, put their e-mail addresses in the BCc: field. That is your call to make. And why shouldn’t this person respond to all that you had forwarded a hoax to so that they know it was not authentic?
Her comment wasn’t rude. What is rude about her comments if that is what she does — check Snopes.com before forwarding? That sounds like a smart thing to do considering all the junk and misinformation being forwarded around.
If you had checked this out you certainly wouldn’t of proceeded to send out an inaccurate e-mail as though it was valid and true — would you? Plus she didn’t say you didn’t do a good job. It just sounds as though she is sharing a resource and some habits of proper Netiquette with you.
If anything the lack of Netiquette is on your part. In my E-mail Etiquette 101, Courtesy #1 which is called: GET TO KNOW THE BASICS, item #5 covers just this situation – even noting Snopes.com.
E-mail Etiquette dictates you do NOT just forward anything that lands in your inbox because it says so without verifying its authenticity. You should make the extra effort to check out things like this at any of the various Web sites that point out these urban legends, only one of which is Snopes.com.
If you or the original sender did not want to take the time to vet this e-mail before sending it on it’s way, you certainly cannot get mad when someone who does make these efforts points out to you that it is a hoax and simply states they always check things for accuracy before forwarding.
I assume by your tone, that I am certainly not giving you the response you seek here. I believe your friend did you a favor. Why not take it as you learned something new and not do it again?
In your case, what I would do, is rather than look at the person as rude, which they were not, why not send her a short “thank you” with your humble apologies thanking her for letting you know about Snopes.com. You now know to check things out (and use the BCc: field) before simply forwarding and she provided you the resource to do just that.
I also have an article on my E-mail Etiquette site called the 5 Rules of Forwarding E-mail.
Everyone still has things to learn online – I learn something new every day and I’ve been online for over 15 years now. There is nothing wrong with that – that is what makes online so exhilarating!
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This is a very complicated issue. Certainly, we have business people with exploding inboxes and we need to contain volume, and I agree that email unrelated to business should not be sent to our business recipients.
I think everyone would agree with these points.
Where I see inappropriate action is how to best correct an incorrect email. I firmly advocate contacting the sender, and giving them a chance to correct the error, before you send out a correction en masse. It’s more civil, gives the person the chance to learn and correct the error with some dignity still intact, and recipients learn of the correction from the original sender.
I have heard hundreds of business people in various training sessions tell me how much they dislike receiving a group correction from another recipient. People describe it as “smarmy,” “mean,” and “smug” most often.
I discussed this topic on my blog and one reader disagreed, so I know there is controversy on approach. However, based on many discussions with business people, in the situation you describe, I recommend sending the Snopes link with the evidence of incorrect information to the original writer, and ask him to correct the misinformation to the original recipient list. If the writer doesn’t, then it’s necessary to notify the entire recipient list yourself, but give the writer a chance to correct it first. Here is the post I wrote on this topic: http://blog.instructionalsolutions.com/2008/09/11/correcting-an-incorrect-email/
Hey, Mary:
Thanks for the great comments! If only Reply to All didn’t exist… But then again, if you put everyone in the To: field you leave this up to the discretion of those on the other side to not Reply to All. I learned along time ago to not rely on or assume that others will use their discretion appropriately or as I would. That said, you can’t complain when this does happen if you didn’t use BCc: which could have prevented a public correction.
I have always contacted folks privately (and rarely use RTA) and have never believed in public scoldings being an effective way of helping onliners learn. I give them the benefit of the doubt that they don’t know about these concerns otherwise surely they wouldn’t have sent a hoax in that manner. But there are those who will still do what they want anyway…
So many still are not aware of how their lack of understanding or action in these areas can cause problems for themselves and others. Once they understand the importance of using BCc: and vetting a forward before they do so, they tend to be more careful and follow these recommendations.
At your service,
Judith
HI…I do agree with you’re post on e-mails being sent…in work time…in our company their was a e-mail sent out about a staff member not a nice one…and was sent to the wronge person…the person that sent the e-mail out CC most of the staff members…he was sent to HR last week….I am not sure of the out come yet the rest of the saff are very upset as we all know that jobs are hard to come buy..we have to be more responsible for what we wright…Great post …Thanks
Hey, Lynn:
You are correct — one has to be very careful about how they use company e-mail especially in regard to the use of Cc:. Not used properly it can make you look trivial and backfire as in the case you mention. Check out this article that may help those wonder when to use Cc:.
Thanks for stopping by and for your kind words!