The Intolerant Sceptic: Return Receipts
With that there “email” that kids are yammering on about, there’s this feature called Return Receipts.
That is, some email messages are specially marked as “return receipt requested”. When they arrive in your inbox, and you go to read it, a little dialog pops up to ask if you want to send a notification that you’ve read the email.
At least that’s the default behaviour. You can also configure your mail client to automatically send these notifications, or ignore them altogether.
They aren’t very widely used. And all of a sudden, I seem to be getting “return receipt requested” messages from all over. It adds up to an extra button click for each message.
I doubt that you have a good reason for turning on Return Receipts. Your messages aren’t any more important than any others, even if it strokes your ego to be assured that I’ve bothered to read them. You are likely officious, out-of-touch, and surprisingly unhelpful.
The only reason I don’t automatically ignore them is that I find a small, childish pleasure in clicking “No”. I do NOT want to inform the sender that I have read their email.
Return Receipts is entering my list of pet peeves. No hoorays for return receipts. I hate them.
GKarlsen
Holy Smokes!!!
Hehe. I always click no too. hehe.
Interesting: I have never seen this feature – I guess I’m living in some sort of cave. But I completely agree with your glee in clicking “no.
I’ve never gotten one of those or used them, but now that I think about it, I should. Frequently I’ve sent scripts off to producers, then days later realized they never got the email. Forcing them to respond would be useful.
I like ‘em. On occasion I send an email and I need evidence that the moron on the other end actually opened it – like when dealing with the apocryphal Betty.
But, I do turn into a child when I receive one and I am more likely than not to hit “NO”. I mean seriously, I need to know what you’re doing but there’s no way that you have any business knowing what I’m up to…
Return receipts – I’ve seen them and I certainly do not like them.
Email should be an efficient emulation of old-fashioned mail. You should introduce the message with “Dear Snowy” or “Hi Nutmilk”, you should spell correctly, you should use proper paragraphs, and you should sign off at the end. None of this shorthand bullshit to make your message shorter and quicker so you can bill 12 hours a day at the forsaken office. I get so many useless messages from university departments (and formerly at work) that I would never get if the sender actually had to sit and think and send me a letter by post. If you don’t take the time to write me a proper email message, why should I read it or answer it? And why on earth do you need confirmation that I have read it?? If you sent me a letter by post, you’d just have to wait and see whether I offered a response. While you were waiting you could do some real work, talk to some people, feel the sun on your face in the park, and reflect on the time you have in this universe. Imagine that.
I agree with Gned in his comments on email ettiquette. I think that anyone who types “u” for “you” in an email should be immediately shot. I hate net shorthand and wish people would learn how to touch-type.
I admit that I find it odd to see a co-worker’s mail program in a meeting when it will flash something like “158 unread messages” in various unread folders. It’s really not hard to skim a message quickly to see whether it’s useful (but as I’ve complained before – some people don’t know how to read correctly). I get a lot of mail here at work but you can always be assured that I read every single message sent to me. This is how it should be.
Return receipts? They are officially evil and should be outlawed. Anyone sending me one will receive a polite request not to use them.
Perhaps we can set up a “return receipt receipt” so that you can know that original sender has learned that you have read his message – and then what about a receipt for that? That would be real progress.
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Return receipts used to be our unalterable default setting at work because they were linked to Outlook and all the corporate events/meeting rooms/conferences/etc therein. In that sense, they were useful, though it was always amazing how often people would lie outright: “I never got the meeting notice.” Yes you did, you tool and you read it at 1:32 pm last Tuesday!!!!
But out of that setting, I agree that return receipts are evil.