Ah yes, the mass email. You know how it goes.
"Hey I'm moving on Saturday, are any of you around to help me move?"
"I'm throwing a surprise party for Mitch Michaelson on Saturday, can you make it?"
I mean look at those emails, they are just ripe for the unsolicited reply all response, which is seriously the shit.
Now in all fairness, I should say that this is directed at personal emails and not work email. Work email is a different beast due to the sheer volume of work emails. But even then, and especially when it is clear that the person reply'ing all to a work email has no grasp of technology, they can be humorous.
OK, let's take a look at the mass email that undoubtedly commands a reply-all response. It usually consists of an absurd collection of email addressees, I mean have you ever taken a look at who is on these email lists? It's a hilarious smattering of work addresses - trevorbradley@marketingconsultants.net family addresses - grandpajoe@netscape.com - siblings AnGeLpRiNcEsS@hotmail.com random email addresses RGATE@friendster.com and blatantly old addresses rkitson@hamilton.edu.
Moreover, the mass email is always trivial. Want to know why it's always trivial? How many mass emails start with some variation of, "Hey sorry to send a mass email, but ..."? First of all, you aren't sorry. Second of all as a recipient of this email you have cordially invited anyone to take advantage of their one responsibility - and that responsibility is seriously the shit - the unsolicited reply all email response.
Any time I get a mass email (of any size really) I take it upon myself to reply all with some average comment. I can't tell you the number of times I've been at a party with some people that I am just meeting and I get the comment, "Oh, so you're Paxton, the one who always replies to emails." Actually, I can, two or three times, but at any rate, boom, ice broken, friend made.
Now you may be asking yourself, how do I compose a reply-all email? Well looking at the examples I provided above I would go with something along the lines of: 1) I would give out the work number of a friend who is also on the address list 2) Something involving BAILOUT 3) YouTube clip from "Point Break" Are any of those particularly funny? Absolutely not, but the important thing is that I replied all, that shit is seriously the shit.
So take advantage of your First Amendment rights (READ THE BILL) and throw a little reply-all response into your next mass email, people will appreciate your average response and you don't want to be friends with the type of people who get upset with reply-all emails anyway.
howl
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