[thelist] testing (tip)

Sam-I-Am sam at sam-i-am.com
Mon Feb 12 14:12:59 CST 2001


oh, this was actually a real thread! 
I saw the testing subject line and thought you were testing the mail
server/ your subscription. 

so the tip
<tip type="email list advice" author="sam-i-am">
 standard list etiquette asks members to provide a descriptive subject
line with each post. I'd add that further rules apply when subscribers
are sifting through hundreds of emails a day on this and other lists (in
which I'm sure I'm not alone):

. no ALLCAPS - looks like spam and gets deleted
. subject lines like "test" "testing" "subscribe" etc.. tend to get
deleted as they look like misdirected messages to the list-server, or
rhetorical messages to the list. 
. by the same reasoning Re: testing (or re: subscribe etc.) is more than
likely a message telling the sending so! (and gets deleted too)

How long does it really take for someone to just open the message and
check, you ask? Well, maybe only a few seconds...
a few seconds * the 1000 emails I was greeted with last week  = too long
reading email. It adds up, and filtering and deleting non-content all
helps to keep the load down. 

Of course none of this is super critical, but if you do want to reach
everyone it doesn't hurt to double check before sending.
</tip>




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