TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: E-Mail Reply to All: 'Leave Me Alone'

Re: E-Mail Reply to All: 'Leave Me Alone'

AES (siegman@stanford.edu)
Mon, 28 May 2007 17:25:11 -0700

In article <telecom26.148.4@telecom-digest.org>, Monty Solomon
<monty@roscom.com> wrote:

> By Mike Musgrove
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Friday, May 25, 2007; A01

> Last month, venture capitalist Fred Wilson drew a lot of attention on
> the Internet when he declared a 21st century kind of bankruptcy. In a
> posting on his blog about technology, Wilson announced he was giving
> up on responding to all the e-mail piled up in his inbox.

> "I am so far behind on e-mail that I am declaring bankruptcy," he
> wrote. "If you've sent me an e-mail (and you aren't my wife, partner,
> or colleague), you might want to send it again. I am starting over."

> College professors have done the same thing, and a Silicon Valley

> ---stuff snipped----

> Those declaring bankruptcy are swearing off e-mail entirely or, more
> commonly, deleting all old messages and starting fresh.

Lawrence Lessig did this a year or so ago, including trashing every
unanswered message in his In box -- but only after sending each of
those correspondents a codeword that allowed them *one* "free"
single-screen email response back to him, that would get through his
filters and that he guaranteed he would read.

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: That 'codeword' he sent them is about
the same thing as my 'secret word' technique. Yes, I know there are
going to be users who do not know about it, and yes, I know some legit
mail get past me and hit the trashcan by accident, and yes, I know it
is a terrible thing to do; (it has happened to me elsewhere when
sending email) but NO, I do not intend to feel guilty about it any
longer. I still suggest that in light of the huge amount of spam/scam
on the net these days, it is the only practical way of handling it
all. Are there any other _workable, practical_ solutions I have
overlooked? Someone please tell me. PAT]

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