# You're a cow. A big dumb emailing cow **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 21, 2005, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465 "2005-04-21T19:31:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/21 "2005-04-21T21:37:44Z")
I read the whole thread and still can’t stop thinking about what a \*\*big \*\* keyboard a cow would need. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/22 "2005-04-21T22:39:03Z")
> [@Greathouse](#): > > This very same thing happened when I was working at MS in Las Colinas. Drove me fucking NUTS! > > I was guessing that is where you work since the reference to the AutoDL site. Am I wrong? You are not wrong sir! (I’m not in PSS though - so you can see how far-reaching this bedlam was) ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/23 "2005-04-21T23:15:53Z")
> [@Dooku](#): > > Then came the angry idiots, replying all with: “STOP USING REPLY ALL!!” These ranged into the thousands. Reminds me of a mailstorm we had a year or two ago where someone stumbled onto a d-list and posted their Glurge Of The Day. The reply-all “STOP SENDING THIS JUNK!!” followed by reply-all “DON’T HIT REPLY ALL!” followed by “TAKE ME OFF THIS MAILING LIST!!” mess got so bad that the Exchange admins suspended delivery of all mail enterprise-wise and quickly wrote up a rule to silently discard all messages with “Christmas Shoes” (or whatever the crap was) in the subject from all 150,000 or so inboxes enterprise-wise. All because one person sent one email. Amazing, isn’t it? One nugget of d-list protocol: To prevent mailstorms, put the name of the d-list in the BCC: field. This way, nobody gets an email with 200 names at the top, and if they hit reply-all, it will be only a reply to you. ---
**Author:** ![Abbie\_Carmichael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/49beb7/32.png) [@Abbie\_Carmichael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abbie_Carmichael)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/24 "2005-04-21T23:36:45Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > It seems like every time I come in to work there’s one more little fussy picky thing that I, being new, have no way of knowing about, so I end up committing some _faux pas_ and hearing about it. We need to talk about your TPS reports. ---
**Author:** ![mcott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f6c823/32.png) [@mcott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mcott)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/25 "2005-04-22T04:24:37Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > - \\* > > One nugget of d-list protocol: To prevent mailstorms, put the name of the d-list in the BCC: field. This way, nobody gets an email with 200 names at the top, and if they hit reply-all, it will be only a reply to you. I was about to post that. We have a policy at work that if you need to send something to a large list, you send it to yourself, and BCC the list. Works well, till some nimrod just sends a message to the list. I myself live by the BCC. The BCC is your friend! ---
**Author:** ![EmeraldGrue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dc4da7/32.png) [@EmeraldGrue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmeraldGrue)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/26 "2005-04-22T19:47:50Z")
Yeeeeah. **Otto** , did you get that memo about putting coversheets on the TPS reports? If you could just remember to do that from now on… ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/27 "2005-04-22T20:02:15Z")
> [@Abbie Carmichael](#): > > We need to talk about your TPS reports. Beat to the punchline. Damn. By the way, try and say “fussy, picky” ten times real fast and tell me if you end up saying what I did. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/28 "2005-04-22T20:22:38Z")
Of course, cows can only upload, not download. Or is that stairs? I forget. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/29 "2005-04-22T20:52:10Z")
Another thing to do is restrict who can send to distribution groups. Then you designate someone in Corporate Communications as traffic cop. Only they (and a few other carefully selected people) can send to one of these groups. ---
**Author:** ![5que](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/3bc359/32.png) [@5que](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5que)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/30 "2005-04-22T21:03:09Z")
Otto, I believe you have my stapler. And yeah, we had that here too – distribution list e-mails + many Reply All = Fun for Exchange administrators! They reprogrammed the Reply All button in Outlook that now pops up a “Do you really want to do this” message with the No button the default. We still get idiots though the ignore all the safety equipment and show themselves to be dumbasses. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/31 "2005-04-24T03:12:20Z")
> [@mr bus guy](#): > > Beat to the punchline. Damn. > > By the way, try and say “fussy, picky” ten times real fast and tell me if you end up saying what I did. > :eek: Fucky, pissy? ---
**Author:** ![aurelian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f4b2a3/32.png) [@aurelian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurelian)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2005, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/32 "2005-04-24T05:05:14Z")
> [@Abbie Carmichael](#): > > We need to talk about your TPS reports. I cannot tell you how truly horrified I was to learn there really is such a thing as a TPS report. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/33 "2005-04-25T07:45:48Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > One nugget of d-list protocol: To prevent mailstorms, put the name of the d-list in the BCC: field. This way, nobody gets an email with 200 names at the top, and if they hit reply-all, it will be only a reply to you. I like this as well, especially if you’re hoping to end a thread that’s already been reply-all’d too many times. However, where I work, bcc’ing a distribution list brings a whole class of pissy weenie out of the woodwork. The kind that sends you angry emails claiming that bcc’ing a DL is extremely bad manners because it screws up people’s mail filtering rules. Yeah, excuse the fuck out of me for your dumb ass writing an email rule based on something you know is wrong. When you write a rule like “if To: or Cc: lines contain ‘foo’ then store in the foo folder”, you’re making a stupid assumption (that people won’t bcc DL’s), and then you blame someone else when your stupid assumption proves to be wrong. Boo hoo, every once in a while your braindead rule misses an email. Cry me a fucking river. Sorry, just had to get that off my chest. The “never bcc DL’s” camp pisses me off. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/34 "2005-04-25T08:30:40Z")
Huh. Then how would you suggest designing such a filter so as to put all emails from “foo” DL into “foo” folder? ---
**Author:** ![GomiBoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b2d939/32.png) [@GomiBoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GomiBoy)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2005, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/35 "2005-04-25T14:32:37Z")
> [@Dooku](#): > > Once upon a time some idiot Admin created a DL called “Bedlam.” It was a DL of about 10,000 employees. > > Some other idiot happened to notice this DL in his “member of” list, and send an Email to it saying “Please remove me from this DL.” (What he was doing staring at his own contact information, I can only speculate, as I’m not an idiot). > > Almost as a call to arms for fellow idiots, they all started Replying All: “Me too.” “Yes, please remove me as well.” There were about 1000 of these. > > Then the slightly-smarter idiots chimed in: “Do NOT Reply All!! Use the internal site “AutoDL” to remove yourself manually!” Clever, except they, too replied all. About 200 of these. > > Then came the angry idiots, replying all with: “STOP USING REPLY ALL!!” These ranged into the thousands. > > End result: Two huge mail servers slowing to a crawl then crashing, half the company down for two days while it all got sorted out, and a follow-up mail re-stating the policy on Reply All and a new procedure for creating AutoDLs which had to be approved before getting created. > > [sub]Bonus humor involved for those who know where I work[/sub] I know where you work. I work there too. Bedlam was not fun… ---
**Author:** ![spinky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@spinky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spinky)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/36 "2005-04-26T16:37:34Z")
> [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > Huh. Then how would you suggest designing such a filter so as to put all emails from “foo” DL into “foo” folder? Having your DL’s put an identifiable header in the message works great for everyone. Otherwise, the problem is impossible by definition because you’re trying to make a decision based on information you’re not given. The entire point of the BCC field is that you can’t see it in the received message. So it’s impossible to filter on it. By the same token, you can’t design a filter that files all messages BCC’d to Joe Blow. Given that the problem is only really solvable from the admin side, many people go with the “it mostly works” solution of filtering based on To: and Cc:. That’s fine, as long as they don’t complain to me when it (completely predictably) doesn’t work right occasionally. ---
**Author:** ![Wasafiri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/59ef9b/32.png) [@Wasafiri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wasafiri)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465/37 "2005-04-26T21:43:18Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > You know, there are decaf coffees now that taste just as good as the real thing. Such a good movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-a-cow-a-big-dumb-emailing-cow/300465.md?page=1)