Email: The Power & Perils
Instant communications can be a boon, and a bane.
DEBORAH WHISTLER
EDITOR
The joys of email. We can be connected in an instant. It has become the preferred communications tool for most of us. But when something goes wrong, it can also cause incredible problems. I will relate to you the power and the pain of email, based on my own recent email dilemma.
Because of some bizarre technical screwup dealing with forwarding email to one address from another and server difficulties, I recently discovered that I haven't been receiving a good portion of my email. And that has been the case for awhile (probably since late April).
I receive tons of email daily, so the slowdown was kind of a relief. I had also been attempting to eliminate all the junk email, so thought maybe the drought was related to that. At first I really didn't question it.
And no one knew that when they sent me something I wasn't getting it. Part of the problem was that when an email didn't get to me, it also didn't get returned to the sender as undelivered. All those missed emails are apparently floating out there somewhere in cyberspace and their senders are unaware I didn't receive them.
I finally discovered the problem when some of our editors filed copy for the magazines and I didn't receive it. That started the technical investigation.
I have AOL as an email account because I need an outside email service when I travel, and because I've had AOL for so long that I worry about changing my email address. I also have thousands of email addresses in the AOL address book. I dread having to convert them over to another email system.
The problem was finally traced to our corporate email server. By the time you read this, it should be fixed.
This is probably more information on my computer problems than you need. But bottom line: If any of you have written to me in the past couple months via computer, I quite likely didn't get it. So, if you saved your original message, please resend it to dwhistler@truckinginfo.com.
I'm especially concerned that I might have missed emails from folks requesting copies of our Coping With Crisis series. If you ordered copies and haven't received them, please write again.
This hasn't been the first, nor will it be the last time I've suffered from huge communications gaffs as a result of email. While email has helped us keep instantly connected, its use can also have some mighty negative consequences. Instant karma, if you will.
Most of my email backfires have dealt with sending off messages in the heat of the moment that I wish I could get back, joking with someone and having it misconstrued, or copying the wrong people with something they shouldn't see.
Following are some tips I picked up from PC World magazine for keeping yourself out of email danger.
Rule 1: Always check the "To" field before you click "Send."
Rule 2: Always check the "To" field before you click "Send."
Rule 3: Always check the "To" field before you click "Send."
Rule 4: Remember the carpenter's rule, "Measure twice, cut once," and think twice before sending once. In other words, put that message aside and let your temper (or lust) cool before you send it.
Rule 5: Use draft folders with caution. No matter what email program you use, it can be easy to send an email in progress by accident. Save that hot-and-heavy note on a floppy disk — and lock it in a vault.
Rule 6: Old news can become bad news. Find your inner Yoda (or inner editor) and pause before you write something that could come back to haunt you. In short, avoid future embarrassment by not writing anything even remotely off color or off the cuff. When in doubt, hit the Cancel key instead of Send — and remove anything potentially mortifying. Remember, too, that deleting sent emails on your system is only half the story; they could be sitting out there on some server, just waiting for a subpoena. (Remember the ancient emails exhumed for Microsoft's antitrust trial?)
Rule 7: Don't make jokes or comments via e-mail that you wouldn't make in person. "Email can be a minefield of unintended insults," says Judy Heim, communications maven and longtime PC World writer. "I've stopped wisecracking in email. It's too easy for comments to be misconstrued."
