I weep for humanity.
Today, one of the most in-fucking-furiating things since the advent of e-mail is taking place. It makes me want to shed a tear for humanity and invent the cyber boot to kick people in their fucking head over the internet at the same time.
This is a slight alteration on what usually takes place, but the principle is the same: It starts innocently enough--someone begins a listserve for people with like interests or a common goal to facilitate communication. Because everyone should hear what everyone is saying, the default setting for reply is a reply to all. This is all fine and dandy.
My current situation is slightly different. A booking agency, representing a campus performer, set up a mailing list that contained the mailing addresses of his contacts, most of whom are or were campus programmers, like myself.
In each case, the issue is the same. One person gets one too many e-mails and requests to be taken off the mailing list. We know this because numbnuts decides to, instead of following the unsubscribe directions (which most listservs have), reply (and remember this is a reply to all, so the entire group gets it) and ask to be removed. This sparks something in someone else, who makes the same request. Eventually, even people who wanted to be on the listserv are requesting to be let off because of the inundation of e-mails they're now getting. The fuckwittery increases geometrically. Scattered throughout, people with brains attempt to interject how to actually unsubscribe yourself; ironically, they add to the mass of e-mails by replying to all because of the necessity to share this information with everyone in an attempt to get it to stop. It's no use. Asshats don't read, or don't get it. It escalates. All caps come out. People begin "screaming" and "yelling" through e-mails. Sometimes insults or foul language join the fray. The nonsense continues until an admin changes the settings, people actually get it (no data available) or the whole damn thing gets shut down.
What's worse? I work in higher education. This means that just about everyone in many of these situations has some form of alphabet soup after their name. M.Ed. MA. MLS. BA. MPH. JD. And yes, even Ph-got-damn-D. These are "educated" people. But no one is immune, and many invariably show their asses.
In conclusion: %@$#^%^*^@$%@%!!!!!!!!
This is a slight alteration on what usually takes place, but the principle is the same: It starts innocently enough--someone begins a listserve for people with like interests or a common goal to facilitate communication. Because everyone should hear what everyone is saying, the default setting for reply is a reply to all. This is all fine and dandy.
My current situation is slightly different. A booking agency, representing a campus performer, set up a mailing list that contained the mailing addresses of his contacts, most of whom are or were campus programmers, like myself.
In each case, the issue is the same. One person gets one too many e-mails and requests to be taken off the mailing list. We know this because numbnuts decides to, instead of following the unsubscribe directions (which most listservs have), reply (and remember this is a reply to all, so the entire group gets it) and ask to be removed. This sparks something in someone else, who makes the same request. Eventually, even people who wanted to be on the listserv are requesting to be let off because of the inundation of e-mails they're now getting. The fuckwittery increases geometrically. Scattered throughout, people with brains attempt to interject how to actually unsubscribe yourself; ironically, they add to the mass of e-mails by replying to all because of the necessity to share this information with everyone in an attempt to get it to stop. It's no use. Asshats don't read, or don't get it. It escalates. All caps come out. People begin "screaming" and "yelling" through e-mails. Sometimes insults or foul language join the fray. The nonsense continues until an admin changes the settings, people actually get it (no data available) or the whole damn thing gets shut down.
What's worse? I work in higher education. This means that just about everyone in many of these situations has some form of alphabet soup after their name. M.Ed. MA. MLS. BA. MPH. JD. And yes, even Ph-got-damn-D. These are "educated" people. But no one is immune, and many invariably show their asses.
In conclusion: %@$#^%^*^@$%@%!!!!!!!!