From: Poteat, Michael

Why NOT to Use Sedona to Send Bulk Email to HCAS Faculty

What started it all. No reply necessary. Cryptic Emails. What does no reply mean? One last try. George Bailey On Do Not Reply Emails From: Poteat, Michael Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 6:13 PM To: Beck Frazier, Susan; Benson, Nicholas H; Eakins, Stan; Engelke, Martha K; McGhee, Susan; Obrien, Kevin; Page, Jessica; Petersen, Paul; Simpson, Susan Nash; Warren, Sandra; Winstead, Beth; Wuensch, Karl L Cc: Brown, Sylvia; Elwell, Jeffery; Gallagher, Margie; Gilbert, Glen; Horns, Phyllis; Niswander, Rick; Rogers, Ralph; Swope, John; Thomas, Stephen; White, Alan Subject: SEDONA

The e-mail function in Sedona was not functioning properly because of a DNS error. It should work now. If you have not resent faculty their IDs and passwords, I suggest that you consider doing so in the next few days. If you prefer that I send the message just let me know. It will look as though it came from you.

I made the mistake of sending such an email to the HCAS faculty:

From: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 8:50 PM To: Wuensch, Karl L Subject: Sedona: Who is my departmental coordinator? Your SEDONA Faculty ID: BxxxxxxxxECA Your SEDONA Password: xxxxxxxx ------Karl,

When you have questions about Sedona or need help with it, your departmental Sedona coordinator is the person you should contact. See the list of coordinators here: http://core.ecu.edu/psyc/wuenschk/Sedona- Help/Coordinators.doc .

You can also find help in the documents at http://core.ecu.edu/psyc/wuenschk/Sedona-Help/Sedona-Help.htm . ------This message was sent by S E D O N A

Notice that Sedona makes the message look personal rather than like what it is, bulk email. This confuses faculty, understandably, and immediately generates lots of replies asking why the email was sent to them. Knowing that if I don’t nip it in the bud my Inbox will soon be overflowing, I reply to the list like this:

From: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 8:56 PM To: Wuensch, Karl L Subject: Sedona: No Reply Necessary

------Karl,

From: xxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 8:50 PM To: Wuensch, Karl L Subject: RE: Sedona: Who is my departmental coordinator?

Is this an automated message? I don't have any SEDONA questions. I've been using it successfully for some time now.

======

Yes, please do not reply.

------This message was sent by S E D O N A That should make it clear to all that these messages were automated and should not be replied to, right? Nope, this message generates replies too. I don’t learn very fast it seems, I try again, and include a suggestion that if one has not been using Sedona recently one had best start doing so.

From: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 9:19 PM To: Wuensch, Karl L Subject: Sedona: Cryptic Emails ------Karl,

FYI, I keep getting strange and cryptic messages that appear to be generated by SEDONA. I logged in once this semester in October and have yet to do anything "SEDONA" since. I don't know why I'm getting these messages, and how or why they are being generated. ------These are generated so that when you complain about not getting any merit pay increase for this year the Dean can reply that you were repeatedly advised to enter your data but you neglected to do so, and accordingly your official publication count was zero.

You may choose to treat them like the frequent emails asking you to turn your computer off because today will be the weeks high energy peak day (in other words, just delete them), or you can treat them like a friendly reminder or piece of advice. ------This message was sent by S E D O N A And again: From: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 9:29 PM To: Wuensch, Karl L Subject: Sedona: What does NO REPLY mean?

------Karl, Yes, again, these are automated emails, and NO REPLY IS APPROPRIATE. ------Hi, Karl, What is this? i donot remember i sent this email/request to Sedona or you. ------From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wed 2/13/2008 8:56 PM To: xxxxx Subject: Sedona: No Reply Necessary ------From: xxxxxxx Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 8:50 PM To: Wuensch, Karl L Subject: RE: Sedona: Who is my departmental coordinator?

Is this an automated message? I don't have any SEDONA questions. I've been using it successfully for some time now. ======Yes, please do not reply ------This message was sent by S E D O N A Clearly this approach is not working. One more try and then I start drinking: From: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 9:54 PM To: Wuensch, Karl L Subject: Sedona Mass Emails ------Karl,

Dear Colleague,

When you get an email from Sedona and it starts out with your first name do not be fooled into thinking that it is directed personally to you. Sedona inserts into mass email the first name of each recipient. Then the poor sucker whose email address is in the "reply to" field (and who is not always the person who initiated the email) gets lots of replies from confused recipients. Sending another mass email to the list asking that replies not be sent just stimulates more replies. I hope this one does not. :-)

Sorry for the confusion. I am going to ask that Sedona not use first names or include a statement to the effect that this is mass email not personal email.

Cheers,

Karl W. ------This message was sent by S E D O N A Ok, time for one bourbon, one Scotch, and one beer. Now I am getting replies threatening to sue me, to report me to the Chancellor and the Provost for unprofessional conduct, and so on. No more mass emails to faculty, thank you. They can figure out how to do it on their own or by using my online web page without any prompting from me or they can just not do it. George Bailey brought humor to all this with this email:

From: Bailey, George Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2008 10:26 AM To: Wuensch, Karl L Cc: Brown, Michael Subject: Email

Please do not respond to this email unless you respond to this email, since if you do respond to this email there may or may not be a response to your response and it may or may not come from someone you did or did not want to get an email from, especially as a result of your sending out a "do not reply to this email" email.

Then again, if you want to set a rule automatically deleting all email from this address (wuenschk@...) reply to this email. This will not get you to the rule but it will be forwarded to lots of unsuspecting individuals who will then wonder what will happen if they reply to the email they got even though the email they got tells them not to reply.

Now, the principle behind not replying to a "do not reply to this email" email seems clear enough, so we must assume that the source of any problems given rise to by someone with the audacity to write "do not reply to this email" in an email to which he or she does not want replies must be explained by reference to something other than features of either the sender or the software.

That said, are you really sure that you want to reply to this email?

George

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