The Chronicles
October 2007
Once upon a time not so long ago when I wanted to communicate with my Australian friends*, the letter I sent began a week-long, 9980 mile journey to carry news of me. Isn't it amazing to think that, thanks to the Internet, this same news now makes it across the world in a matter of ... minutes! No matter who is your e-mail provider (gmail, hotmail, sympatico, cgocable, or many more), you too can send and receive "virtual letters" at amazing speeds to or from anyone, anywhere.
Therefore, let's start covering the e-mail subject by going over some basic principles -
- Your In-box should be empty once you have finished looking over your day's communications. Just as with your regular mail, once sorted, your "in pile" should be empty: you have either placed certain letters destined for your partner in a pile, those bills to be paid in another, junk mail directly into the garbage and the rest filed away. So too with your In-box: you reply to the sender, you transfer an e-mail to another interested party, you delete uninteresting or suspicious mail and you file in Folders those you would like to keep for future reference and back-up purposes.
- It is considered polite to always answer someone who sends you an e-mail. Even if you respond only to say "I will get back to you at a later time" or "Received, thank you", you should always reply. After all, it only takes a moment and it will be appreciated every time.
- It is considered impolite to write in CAPITAL LETTERS. In Internet language, it is considered as shouting at the e-mail receiver. Of course, if you want to scream out "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" or the likes, this is acceptable otherwise, you are being rude.
- Do not, I repeat, DO NOT (see, it's aggressive isn't it) open every e-mail you receive. I know that many of you find it entertaining to send and receive funny photos, sexy cartoons, good jokes, magnificent sun-set presentations, quotes from the Dalai-Lama, etc... - all messages to be transferred to everyone you know ... Yes indeed, a lot of you have no other reason for the use of e-mails. However, be warned, most of these kinds of e-mails are created for the sole purpose of diffusing viruses and worms **. It's unfortunate but true. If you are among those who enjoy these e-mails, you should learn how to clean your computer regularly (on the inside not the outside ;o).
- In the same line of thought, try to abstain from forwarding junk mail unless someone explicitly indicates that they want to receive such e-mails. Go to http://www.secuser.com/hoax/ to identify junk e-mails, hoaxes and viruses.
- Since many of you use e-mails to share family/friends photos, p.l.e.a.s.e learn how to send resized (smaller) images. Whether your receiver uses a telephone line or not, a large photo is horrible to look at on the screen as one must toggle from side to side and up and down in order to see it in its entirety.
I could go on however I don't want to scare you out of having fun with your e-mail box. Use it to save time and money but mostly, use it to share interesting and useful information one can find on the Internet. Would you like to know how to do that? Contact me and let me know ...
Bye for now and look after yourselves!
questions.monamilordi@gmail.com
* yes, I grew up in Australia – visit http://www.monamilordi.com/english/about_me.html for details,
** see last months article: http://www.monamilordi.com/english/reviews/07-08.html .
DID YOU KNOW:
Roughly 35 billion e-mails are sent every day. However, if we add junk mail to that number, we are looking at approximately 171 billion!!!
This article originally appeared in Main Street – The Laurentians' English Language Community Newspaper.
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