Is it Bad Netiquette to Correct Others E-mail Etiquette?

July 15, 2008 by Judith

A site visitor was curious and pondered:

“Isn’t it bad netiquette to “correct” others’ netiquette? I did once, as politely as possible, try to explain this to two of my friends, who either didn’t understand or chose to ignore it, as they continue to do the same thing. Do I give up on them?”

It’s all about how you correct others, knowing, that with some no matter how polite, kind or gentle your corrections may be, they will still get upset or ignore you. I think what contributes to the difficulty in letting some onliners know they still have new stuff to learn, is that our culture is one that has promoted the “do what you want, when you want” mentality, without accountability or consideration for others for some time now.

That said, I do not let that stop me. I’ve been promoting Netiquette and E-mail Etiquette for over a decade much to the chagrin of some who feel I am telling them what to do. When, in fact, if I am telling anyone to do anything, it is to make the effort to have enough knowledge to understand the technology you are participating in so that you can use it with courtesy for the person(s) on the other side.

If you think about it; that’s all E-mail Etiquette is. E-mail is not about one person, it’s about at least two — the Sender and the Recipient. And, just like anything in life, if you run around without thought for others there will be ramifications. Whether you like being knowledgeable and courteous or not, is moot. The outcome will be less than positive based on your decision to ignore proper practices, your education and the desire to be courteous.

So don’t give up! It is folks like you who help others learn by making them aware of informaiton they may not have been exposed to yet. What you can to is send them a link to any of my sites or Blogs and let them read and learn for themselves about the importance of all the issues we discuss here. Hopefully, by being exposed to more information, they’ll make the miniscule effort required to “use technology with knowledge, understanding and courtesy.”

Comments

2 Responses to “Is it Bad Netiquette to Correct Others E-mail Etiquette?”

Julie Hall on March 19th, 2009 6:59 pm

Dear Judith,
Thank you for your work ( and I know that even work one cares passionately about and loves doing is still work) in guiding and educating all of us in how to use technology with knowledge, understanding, and courtesy. Your site is a valuable resource and I wanted to let you know that because you share the details of online etiquette with such evident good will and patience, I used a link to one of your pages (Don’t Brush Off Email Privacy!) when I needed to gently express my concern to the person in charge of the Tennessee Army National Guard Family Readiness Group for the unit with which my Army Chaplain son (now at Fort Bragg NC on full time duty) will serve when they deploy overseas this fall. The FRG contact person sends out all emails with recipients in the To: field, and the number of emails going out this way is increasing and will continue to increase as the deployment draws closer. The tipping point came today when she posted the new online calendar link from a free service. Someone hitting Reply All: had a question and I got her message too and the sight of all those other addresses gently waving in the breeze for the world to see sent me scurrying for a clear, reasonable explanation of why this is not good thing. Sharing your page lends support to my concern without turning it into a scolding or denigrating all the work she puts in for the FRG. I suggested that if she changes her sending format to BCC: for everyone other than herself, she could use your page to explain why and it would spread both civility and security!
The strange thing is that she works as a secretary for the Emergency Management Agency in a neighboring county and such basic email courtesy should be standard practice in a professional setting.
Please keep up your efforts to bring common sense and common courtesy into a world that dearly needs them both.
Best wishes, Julie Hall
Judith on March 20th, 2009 1:00 pm

Hey, Julie:

Thank you for stopping by and for your kind words! It is so refreshing to receive a comment such as yours — most of my e-mail can be considered threatening and as in hate mail. I’ve been at this for 15 years now and I’m not going away because I feel the topics are important enough to get out there and available when looked for. Hopefully over time, more folks will realize the importance of this information in their day to day online activities.

And, folks like you are doing your part by also “coaching” others who are not aware of these issues. I really consider this a group effort. Most companies, agencies and organizations offer no guidelines, policies or training in regard to e-mail etiquette. So you run into those like you have who are doing what they are because they really do not know any better. With that said, the real smarties, when they are made aware of these issues are then on board.

It is e-mail and comments like yours that keep me plugging away at this keyboard. Thanks again — you’ve made my day!

At your service,
Judith