Loren Wilton wrote: > > The only way to make this a cultural change is to make this a cultural > > change. Setting up a bad autoresponder needs to become an > > embarrassment to people that set them up. They do need peer pressure > > to realize that they are not being neighborly. > > But before this can be done, some people will need email clients that can > differentiate between random direct email and a posting from a mailing list. > If you only have one way to post a vacation message and it has no options, > you have two choices: use it or don't.
Actually, you don't have two choices. You only have one. Do not use a broken autoresponder. If your car was broken because it had no brakes would you still drive it? Would you tell the folks that you run into that you really only had two choices, to drive the car without brakes or not to drive it, and so of course you choose to drive it anyway? What would they think of your choices? What would a choice like that say about the individual that made it? I am sure they would be very understanding of your plight and would come to accept that it is okay to drive cars without brakes. > But before this can be done, some people will need email clients that can > differentiate between random direct email and a posting from a mailing list. By the way, email clients like that have been around for many, many years. A better statement is that people need to stop using clients that do not support those features. I see this in your headers. > X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1409 Ew... One of the worst offenders! > Which is fine, unless you have NO choices because unenlightened corporate > policy says you WILL use a vacation message. (And it WILL include a > corporate-mandated footer about proprietary information, and you must eat > this email message if it wasn't intended for you.) (How do I state this without invoking Godwin's Law?) People have used the argument that they were just following orders before. It did not work then and it does not work now. If your work mandates a bad email policy then do not use your work email for non-work mailing lists. Both sides will be happier. Bob
