Combating E-mail Overload: Readers Fight Back

E-mail Rage (Continued) ... My April 2 Dispatch, What's the Cure for E-mail Rage?, on e-mail overload struck a raw nerve with dozens of e-mail responses.  Michael Colacino at Studley in New York City writes about one of my pet peeves: "Annoying, but very prevalent, is the habit of sending out flyers without any information in the subject header or body.  This means that a) I have to open a word or other document just to see that a 1,000 square foot piece of industrial space in a New Jersey has come available, and b) when I get the e-mail on my BlackBerry, I can't open it."

Ed Miller at Colliers Arnold in Tampa, FL writes: "The cure is building a cultural consensus: ... Rules of behavior are built by consensus, our cultural software. ...  The answer lies in anthropology, not technology." ...  Swann Fredrickson at Piker-CRESA [cool name] in Cincinnati, OH writes: "My pet peeve is receiving an e-mail with an attachment which is nothing more than a short message or memo which could have gone into the body of the e-mail.  It's like getting an e-mail to say I have e-mail."

Robert Aldrich at CMD Realty Investors says access speed will increase your quality of life: "The reality here is a technology gap ... So while etiquette is one thing, if you want to play, you must improve your connection.  If you depend so much on e-mail and have a slow connection and large attachments drive you crazy, then you have to either upgrade your service, create a secondary account for junk mail, or use an Internet service where you can view your mail and pick and choose the attachments to view/launch."

Finally, Dan Sanchez at ApartmentComps sometimes recommends a vigilante approach: "Someone sent me a flyer like that once (bigger though), except they obviously didn't realize that it was sent properly because I received it 20 times!  I sent them five 2MB movies of Amazon tree frogs in return." ... Yikes! 

--Peter Pike / ppike@pikenet.com