Purpose: To define and make known my policy regarding email and email address management.
Background: Email is an effective tool for keeping in touch and sharing information. Unfortunately, when used improperly and outside certain guidelines it loses its effectiveness. I am writing these guidelines in an attempt to maintain my email's effectiveness and sharing them with you, my email correspondents, to share my ideas and so that you are not surprised or offended by some of my methods.
Email Content: Email by its very nature is insecure and open. You can liken it to sending someone a postcard. Everyone who handles it can read it and even worse can make a copy and store it indefinitely. Confidential information should never be sent by email without encryption of some sort. There are many free encryption software programs available that work with the email clients and others that can encrypt a file used as an attachment. Some are more secure than others and if you want to learn more about this feel free to email me and I will help you set up something suitable for your needs.
Email tends to be a casual form of communication but certain guidelines should be followed to communicate effectively. You should always use correct spelling and grammar (I know, this is not a strong point for me either). Know why you are sending the email and what result you expect to receive. Make sure you state clearly what action you would like the recipient to take upon receipt of your email. The shorter and more concise the email, the more likely it will be answered. Most people are too busy to read a multi-page email and tend to just glance over them quickly before deleting.
My email will have the following header (Thanks Merlin) to help clarify the response expected by me. Your time is valuable and I don't want to waste it nor do I wish to clutter up your inbox with relatively unimportant fluff.
This email is: [ ] actionable [x] fyi [ ] social
Response needed: [ ] yes [x] up to you [ ] no
Time-sensitive: [ ] immediate [ ] soon [x] none
The following links are useful articles on keeping your email effective:
http://changethis.com/10.TyrannyOfEmail
http://www.43folders.com/2005/09/19/writing-sensible-email-messages/
Hyperlink Policy: I do not use html links in my emails. Some email clients will render a URL as a hyperlink for you. I prefer not to use links and just give the URL so that you will cut & paste the URL into your browser protecting you somewhat from phishing scams.
SPAM: The nemesis of email are the thousands of unsolicited commercial emails and outright scams that nearly every email account is barraged with on a daily basis. While spam is relatively easy to deal with (it takes no more than a minute to delete mine) avoiding it is much more productive. It is possible to avoid a large amount of spam if certain precautions are taken. (I have one email account that is now several months old that still receives no spam at all)
To keep spammers from filling your email inbox you need to first keep your email address out of their mailing lists. You can start with an email address that isn't obvious. Once you have an address that isn't likely to be in a dictionary attack you need to keep it secure from email collection. I use both DEA's (disposable email addresses) such as www.spamgourmet.com and reCAPTCHA Mailhide for this purpose as these services are easy to use and do not require a lot of follow up once you have them set up.
! Please request a DEA from me if you need to enter my email address into a web form such as on e-card sites. This will prevent my email address from being added to their mailing list. You should use a DEA for this as well.
Chain email and forwarding in general can be an avenue for spammers to harvest email addresses. How many of these emails that are forwarded countless times are loaded with all the email addresses of everyone who was sent this email. Some I have received have had hundreds of emails in the various headers. I understand that most people like to share things with their friends to brighten their day or let their friends know they are thinking of them. Unfortunately, we are busy people and send it along the fastest and easiest way we can by hitting the FWD button and adding our friends to the TO: list. The best way to deal with this is to post these types of email to your blog where your friends can see the material if they choose.
Forwarding Policy: My policy for chain emails is to delete them, period. Material Forwarded to me will be reviewed as a courtesy to the sender. You care enough about me to send it the least I can do is look at it. If it is really good stuff I may put it up on my blog. More likely though I will get a smile for a moment, think nice thoughts back at you and then delete it. I am not being mean, just realistic with my time and effort.
Attachment Policy: I don't mind attachments to email as much as some. I do not open executable files unless I trust the source and have screened it every possible way to be sure it is virus free. If you are going to attach encrypted files work with me on getting the passphrase in a secure manner. Photos are always welcome though it is better to post them to flickr or a similar site and send the URL so the large files don't bog down someones email account.
Reply Policy: Generally I do not reply to email unless a response of some kind is specifically requested. Even if a response is required please don't expect it immediately. My situation is that I do not have daily internet access so it may be several days before I even receive the email much less reply to it.
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