Walter Alejandro Iglesias <wai@roquesor.com>
Very annoying practices you shold avoid with
electronic mail
- Using formatted text (eg HTML.) Or the irritating
flowed format to allow plain text automatically adjust to
the window size, imitating HTML behaviour. Using
plain text is the only way to know that the message will reach the
other end with the format you (i.e., the author) chose,
it's not up to the programer of the application to make this
decision. Another important reason is these formats
break quoted text. And I could mention a hundred
more.
- Doing top-posting, specially with email clients not able to
quote, letting original messages accumulate at the bottom as
garbage on each response.
- Adding noisy legal footnotes, which obviously won't protect
your message either practically or legally, and contrary to what
some believe, companies aren't required to include them.
- Relying on email as a tool to send files (instead of a server,)
abusing of attachments.
- Not reading before answering, forcing the other to explain the
same idea again and again through a twelve messages thread when the
first was enough. Or using software purposely designed
to obstruct or even break the dialog as the one pointed in the
following item.
- Using annoying ticket systems, as large companies use today as
part of their bureaucracy to discourage their clients from asking
questions or support.
- Forcing the user to suffer web forms to send messages, as those
for contact in web sites o those used by the mentioned ticket
systems. All fake privacy measures.
- Using web mail interfaces (gmail, hotmail,) limited by
design.
- Write and answer email messages from a
smartphone. As happens with any “Swiss army knife” it
has sense only under those special circumstances in which you don't
have access to a real tool. (And NO, chat tools like the
currently famous and widely used are not a replacement for
email.)