Mike's Rules for Emailing
1.
If you are going to forward an email to someone, first look and see if the
originator has already sent it to that same person.
They don't need it more than once!
2.
When you do forward an email, please edit out all the previous headers
and lists of previous recipients of the email, unless their identity is germane
to the content.
Getting rid of all the >>> that build up from multiple
forwarding would be nice too!
3.
The best thing to do is send out your own original emails.
Learn how to copy and paste. You
should be able to do it; many have. This
way you can paste in the content of that joke, recipe or other tidbit of
information that you think your friends just can't live without reading.
4.
Most people are moderately religious and believe in many things.
What people don't believe in is the fact that if they don't forward an
email to ten people in five minutes that parts of their body will fall off or
they will rot in a very hot place for a long time.
So, if the email has one of those types of statements at the end…
either edit it out or don't send it to someone else.
People can make their own choice if they want to send an email on to
others.
5.
Virus warnings and other scams should be verified before forwarding
them on to others. Unless you are
an expert in that field, don't forward emails that tell people to delete files
from their computer just because they have a funny icon next to them when you
view the file in Explorer. There
are excellent sites that deal with urban legends and hoaxes and will tell you
if they are real or not. Check
these out before you unload your entire address book on the Internet to spread
bogus information and just scare people.
If you find out later that you screwed up and sent out a hoax - then
apologize and take responsibility for your actions.
6.
If your CC: list is regularly longer than the actual content of your
message, you're probably going to be punished eternally. (Ever heard of BCC?) By
using the BCC (blind carbon copy) even though it isn't really a carbon
copy any more. This will allow you to send your stuff to hundreds of people and
none of them will ever know you sent it to another soul.
Learn about your email editor. Again it is not hard - many have done
it too!
7.
Don't SHOUT IN AN EMAIL. Typing
in all UPPER case characters is considered shouting in an email.
Use a little common writing style when sending emails.
8.
Don't be so lazy that your emails are full of LOL - PLMK - K - :) - :(
or other abbreviations. We are
not pounding a key sending Morse code. We
have a keyboard and very fast computers so that we can type all kinds of letters. Even at work, so-called professionals are using this type of
form of typing in formal business communications. Clean
up your act; it will look much better and be much more readable.
9.
If the email you are about to forward is about some nationally known
company giving away the farm… do two things before you forward that email.
(1) Go to that company's Web site and see if they have a disclaimer about the
email. (2) Check out the email's subject at: http://urbanlegends.about.com/
or another type of site that verifies these emails.
Then, if you are sure it is legitimate… send it on.
10. Here is a great link with advice about hoax emails: