This is the subject line of an e-mail from my company’s accounting department. The stupid accountants do this all of the time.
“Pre-bills have been distributed and are due back in accounting by Friday, April 8! Please note that last month’s charges were NOT put on hold. Any problems please contact xxxxxxxxxxxx- thanks”
Guess what was in the body of the e-mail itself? Nothing!
What’s annoying is that you have to let your cursor drift over this stupid subject line so that it expands beyond the window boundaries to read it. All bets are off, of course, if you’re trying to read the e-mail through our web-based interface.
Is it really so hard to comprehend the difference between the SUBJECT and the body of an e-mail?! :wally
There’s a lady at my work who does that. There’s an SQL script I run for her once and a while. She’ll email me saying:
“Script. Txs, A”
Not only is she giving me a one-word, very curt order, but she abbreviates the word “thanks”. Three extra letters, and you look 100 times more professional. :rolleyes:
Hell, the head of HR at my company does that, in official, company-wide memos, no less, except he abbreviates it “tks”.
As for emails with all the important information in the subject line, I send them out all the time, though I do add “(nt)” at the end. There’s just too many one-phrase alerts that I need to send to my group for it to be efficient to have to open the email to see what it says.
I think they can be useful, provided that the whole message consists of only a few words.
If you only have a few words to say to someone (eg “Your mom called”), what’s point of thinking up MORE words to go in the subject header? I would much rather get a message with the subject line “Your mom called” and the text blank, then one with the subject line “Phone message” (or something) and have to open the e-mail to read the text.
If you are against no-text e-mail messages, then tell me: how would you e-mail me to let me know my mom called?
Agreed that the example in the OP is simply absurd.
I have the opposite problem here – no subject line at all, and blue bolded italic 16pt text on a pink background with flowers and an ad for graemlins. All for a message says “pls run rpt thx.”
Hey, I often send emails whose entire message is in the subject line, and nothing in the body.
But when I do that, it’s because I have room to add “(no message)” to the title, without running long. That way, the recipient doesn’t even need to open the message; it’s all there.
Very handy when the entire message/title is, “Let’s meet at 9.”
Yeah, I do the same thing, guys, but we’re bitching about “cramming” the whole thing into the subject line. It’s clearly not short messages we’re talking about.
robby is this someone completely new to technology? If they aren’t, this certainly makes them appear to be a newbie.
There’s a co worker of mine who refuses to use the subject line. Most of her emails come under a totally blank header.
Even worse, she’ll respond to an email of mine to send me information about a totally unrelated subject. I’ll send her an email asking where we stand on project XXXX with the header “Can I get the status of project XXXX.” Along comes an email from her with the subject line “re: Can I get the status of project XXXX.” I’ll open it to find “Here’s a document I need you to review for project YYYY.”
And, yes, all her type is in 16 pt text on a pink background with flowers. Obviously she has figured out enough about our email system to customize her font and background. Why hasn’t she figured out how to put text into the subject line?
I must be the least popular doper emailer ever since I use both the subject-only email and the blank-subject email.
My friends and I used to use subject-only emails a lot, usually for setting up lunch (e.g. “Lunch on Thu at Bland Mex?<EOM>”). However, this technique is pretty much obsolete since IM.
I think subject-only emails are fine as long as they’re comprehensible. I hate it when the subject tells you nothing about the contents; that’s worse because then I can never refer back to it.
But custom email…ugh. Any work-related communcation with customized background and fonts gets disdain from me. Sometimes my email program interprets backgrounds and borders as attachments, and I open them only to find a square of flower print or a frilly border.
But that’s a short message which isn’t part of the rant! People would hate you if you use subject-only emails like, “Do you want to have lunch Thursday at Bland Mex? Great food there, the sopapillas are to die for! I think it’s my choice, but of course, only if you’d like to go there, too.”
Oh, yes. I have hundreds of e-mails in my mailbox, saved under various folders. Every three months I empty them, but still get more. I am constantly asked, “Do you have this e-mail, from February?” And I have to go back and look for it! I have a Preview Pane in Outlook but it’s much better if you put a subject in it.