Netiquette forwarding rules

Today's blog offers some concise tips on forwarding and resending email messages. As always, proper Netiquette should be maintained. Moreover, since the characteristics of these types of emails are different, sometimes extra considerations should be considered.

Forwarding

        When forwarding, it should be made certain that the email is being sent to the recipient's appropriate account (business, personal, group).  If one chose's to send to a group, it should be insured that this not going to cause any problems.  It is best here to forward to individuals.  Consideration should be given for using the bcc:  method as well.  Additionally, an explanation should be given to ensure  a message or thread is being forwarded and if one is not the composer, state a reason for the mail.

        Sometimes a message is returned because one of the recipient's addresses is typed incorrectly.  Rather than resending the message again to everyone, it should be resent only to the addressee who did not receive it.  One should make sure this is mentioned.  One can accomplish this by forwarding the email as well.  Similarly, with a resending with the successful recipients, explain what and why it is being done. 

Resending messages

        This method can be a very useful tool.  Often a recipient  has not received or has lost a message.  If you do resend a message and include additional recipients, take the same care and steps as you would when forwarding.  If the original mail was a sender request, make sure to state "second request or "resent" in the reference bar.

        Do not gloat about resending a message to prove a point since the original meaning for sending or interpretation for a message may have been misread by the sender.  If you are resending a message which was not received, was lost or needs more information, take proper care that the content is still timely, relevant and complete.  You may need to add more information and if this is the case, add the information separately and be clear as to how and why.  Do not change the original message since it may later be read or compared to the original.

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Yesterday's quiz was: When was the first email sent from space?

1. 1971

2. 1980

3. 1985

4.1991

5. 1995

Which country was responsible for the first email?

1. The United States

2. Russia/Soviet Union

3. Israel

4. China

5. North Korea

The correct answers are the United States sent the first email from space in 1991. Here is the message:

“Hello Earth! Greetings from the STS-43 Crew. This is the first AppleLink from space. Having a GREAT time, wish you were here… send cryo and RCS! Hasta la vista, baby… we’ll be back!”

Here is today's quiz/fact:

What percentage of time does the average worker spend on email per day?

1. 15%
2. 21%
3. 28%
4. 35%
5. More than 35%

The answer will appear in the next blog posting.

Netiquette rules for sending emails

The last blog initiated descriptions of Netiquette rules and suggestions for sending emails in terms of times and other considerations. This posting will expand upon this topic. Any questions on this area or other aspect of Netiquette are welcome and can be directly posted as well. Suggestions on how to expand the NetiquetteIQ blog page are welcome also.

International emails

It has already been stated in the last blog how instant mail communication can be properly utilized with correct Netiquette.  This applies to international communications as well. Care and consideration should be given to the time windows.  It cannot be expected for an overseas person to quickly reply to a message which is received off hours to them but prime time in the United States. There are many time zone references available on-line.  If a message does need to be sent off hours, it is highly desirable for the sender to let the recipient know he (the sender) is aware of the difference and if a reply or action is anticipated, that an appropriate adjustment and/or expectation has been made.

Sending

            "The sky is falling" 

                                            - Chicken Little
       
Proper Netiquette is sometimes overlooked by using an overemphasized subject line which does not deliver or correspond to some related topic or presumption in the content of the email itself.  Although a good, accurate and relevant or interesting subject line is needed, exaggerated wording or format can be misleading and ruin a message. So can a weak or unrelated one that is vague.  Even though a more attention grabbing subject field may elicit a greater chance of being read, to do so consistently, without merit, may produce a dismissive reaction on future communications. Similarly, the frequent use of excessive email program flags, such as red exclamation marks, will also usually produce the opposite of the intended effects.  When utilized properly, importance in subject fields or signifiers will be appreciated, welcomed and read.

Unintended Bait and Switch

Just as email promotions from many companies, an exaggerated subject line might completely differ from the intended target message.  Although this tactic may be deliberately used for spam marketing, it should not be used with non spam messages.  Sometimes this action is not intended. One cause might be a lack of concentration in changing the subject line for the convenience of not having to open a new email template and completing the fields. 

The reused template may also contain unintended urgent flags.  The subject field might also contain previous multiple punctuation marks, all upper case letters or sensitive topics.  There is rarely an instance to reuse messages or templates and new "clean slate" formats should be utilized.  The potential risks of not doing so are too high.

Sending Templates

Similar to replying to emails with "personalized templates" is often transparent, templates for sending can be proper Netiquette although not ideal. Their use is highly preferred to a mail-n-merge whenever at all possible.  These messages are best for general mail where a recipient is not well known, or likely may not be contacted again.  Some examples of these are:

1)   Thank you for meeting, orders, interviews, etc.

2)   Company hire

3)   Survey or opinion

4)   Reminder

5)   Retirement/Promotion/Award

6)   Seasonal Event

7)     Meeting schedule

8)     Rejection of a bid, offer or job request

9)     Company announcement

10)   Referral of a colleague or group

        Once again, it should be stressed that the best Netiquette for email is  to personalize as much as possible to maximize positive tone, insure best results and preserve positive relationships.

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Yesteraday's quiz was:

Which head of state sent the first email? Guess which year as well.

1. Queen Elizabeth

2. Ronald Regan

3. Fidel Castro

4. Mikhail Gorbachev

5. Sadam Hussein

The correst answer is Queen Elizabeth in 1981.

Today's  quiz is: When was the first email sent from space?

1. 1971

2. 1980

3. 1985

4.1991

5. 1995

Which country was responsible for the first email?

1. The United States

2. Russia/Soviet Union

3. Israel

4. China

5. North Korea

The answers will appear in the next blog posting.

Times to send emails within Netiquette guidelines

One major area email has changed communicatios is providing instant delivery. This necessitates giving consideration to when an email is sent. Today's blog begins a series of good Netiquette practices for sending/replying times and possible effects.

This blog also has the answer to the last blog's quiz and a new quiz following the topic below.

"I don't believe in email.  I'm an old fashioned girl.  I prefer calling and hanging up."

                                                                                          - Sarah Jessica Parker

Times to send (or not)
       Netiquettes roots are in Etiquette, social rules and practices which find their origins in the most ancient societies. Because email is 24 x 7 the aspect of interval and timing can easily be compromised. Traditional correspondences were always limited by time for the services to deliver letters/calls/telegrams.  The baby boomers generation was trained, in most households, to refrain from phone calls after certain evening hours and before certain morning hours.  Letters, no matter when they were written would arrive at the recipient's mailbox when the normal mail delivery completed its journey's cycle.

         Because of emails capabilities to instantly deliver on a 24 x 7 basis, someone can receive an email at 11:00pm, 2:00am or whenever the sender releases it.  If the addressee receives email on a PDA or cell phone there is a good possibility the device may be active and a notification sound may awaken the person.  Additionally, if the addressee is a manager or executive, the perception of someone emailing at 2:00 A.M. may be negative.  Contrast this to someone sending at 6:00 P.M.  This carries a far more positive impression, i.e., an early riser. So write away at anytime but send emails at reasonable times, preferably early morning.

         Another benefit of sending at optimal times is that emails which reach the destination inbox when the addressee is on-line have a far better likelihood of

1.   Being read

2.   Being read right away

3.   Receiving a rapid reply.

Weekends and Holidays

        More and more people access email do business or work on weekends and holidays.  Does this practice have any effect upon those receiving emails?  For personal correspondence clearly there would rarely be a negative impact.  These intervals may present the only times one might have to catch up on non-professional, family, or  social activities.  However, just as in sending professional emails at late hours may be bad Netiquette, doing so on holidays may have negative results.  Many professionals have mechanisms which notify them when messages are received during non working hours or utilize a forwarding technology which alerts them.

        It is best Netiquette to apply the same discretion when sending on weekends.  It is  very important not to utilize urgent flags or requests during these times as well, unless there is due cause.  To have someone feel they need to respond to a message during their off hours and to later find out is wasn't necessary, can prove unfortunate.

 

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Quiz

Question: Which country generates the most spam? Russia, China, Brazil, United States, or Germany? Take a guess of the percentage of world wide spam each of these contribute as well.

Answer: China is the leading generator of Spam (10%) followed by Brazil (9%), USA (7.3%), Germany (6.5%) and Russia (6%).

Today's quiz: Which head of state sent the first email? Guess which year as well.

1. Queen Elizabeth

2. Ronald Regan

3. Fidel Castro

4. Mikhail Gorbachev

5. Sadam Hussein

The answer will appear in the next blog.

Our post of 12/11/2012 turned out to be a repeat of  a previous post. Kindly pardon this oversight.

Today's post is a compedieum of annoying, overused and cliche terms which many email users unconsciously resort to. Most of these do not add any real value to an email communication and rather detract from the intended substance of the message itself. Good email Netiquette utilization will make it a point to keep these words or phrases at a minimum or elimate them altogeather.  Please feel free to add to these in a comment.

1.   At the end of the day

2.   Fairly unique

3.   I personally

4.   At this moment in time

5.   With all due respect

6.   Absolutely

7.   It's a nightmare

8.   Shouldn't of

9.   24/7

10.   It's not rocket science

11.   Very unique (related to #3)

12.   It's not brain surgery (related to #10)

13.   Perfect (related to #6)

14.   No problem

15.   For sure

16.   FYI

17.   ASAP

18.   To tell the truth

19.   You have caught me away

20.   No way

21.   Out of the box

22.   Ergonomically

23.   My bad

24.   Not to worry

25.   No worries

26.   In my humble opinion - IMHO

27.   Dude!

28.   Swell

29.   Right on!

30.   Yeah!

31.   Pursuant

32.   As per our discussion

33.   Alright - not a word - use all right

34.   Should of

35.   With all due respect

36.   KISS (Keep it simple stupid)

37.   Hit (visit)

38.   Distro (Distribution list)

39.   Bang for the buck

40.   Viral

41.   Goggle (as a verb)

42.   Epic Fail (as a noun)

43.   I'm just saying

44.   Chat

45.   No brainer

46.   Slam dunk

47.   You betcha

48.   Seriously

49.   To make a long story short

Please note: Most new blogs will now feature the quiz of the day. Some questions will be factual, others trivial or humorous.

Today's quiz. Which country generates the most spam. Russia, China, Brazil, United States, or Germany? Take a guess of the percentage of world wide spam each of these contribute as well. Answers will appear in the next blog posting.

Netiquette - A Comprehesive List of File Extensions A-M - Via Netiquette IQ

File extensions

There are many file extensions which have been used over the years. A considerable amount are now defunct and not used. Good Netiquette IQ espouses not sending formats which are uncommon. All attachments should also be identified in the text of the email itself. An email should never be sent which requires a custom program to open it unless it is expected. The following is a compilation of file extensions which are hopefully contemporary. If any reader identifies an outdated extension, please let us know. This list has extensions from a to m.

List of File Extensions

        File extensions are based on utilizing all possible combinations of English characters.  Three alpha characters shows a possible combination of close to 20,000 possibilities.  If numbers or additional letters are added, far more combinations are possible.  There are a number of categories for file extensions.  Among these are compression data archive, media archiving, computer aided design, database, fonts, graphs (vector, 3D), object code, source code and music.  There are more categories for scientific, video, games, medical and more.  The following list shows most of the formats used in common email.

3DS       3D Studio
 8BF      Adobe Photoshop
 AAC      Advanced Audio Coding (Mac)
 APP      Apple Executable
 AFM      Adobe font metrics (Type 1)
 AI        Adobe Illustrator graphics,
 AIF       Digital audio (Mac)
 AIFC     Digital audio (Mac)
 AJAX     Asynchronous JavaScript And XML
 ALB      JASC Image Commander
 ANI      Animated cursor
 ANN     Windows help annotations
 ANS      ANSI text
 ARC      ARC, ARC+ compressed archive
 ASA      ASP info
 ASAX    ASP.NET file
 ASC      ASCII file
 ASCX    ASP.NET file
 ASD      Word temporary document
 
 ASMX    ASP.NET file
 ASP      Active Server Page
 ASPX    ASP.NET file
 ATT      AT&T Group IV fax
 AU        Digital audio (Sun)
 AVI       Microsoft movie format
 BAK      Backup
 BAS      BASIC source code
 BAT      DOS, OS/2 batch file
 BIN      Driver, overlay
 BML      Bookmark library (SyncURL)
 BMP      Windows & OS/2 bitmap
 BMK     Windows help bookmarks
 C         C source code
 CAB      Microsoft compressed format for distribution
 CAL      Windows calendar,
 CCB      Visual Basic animated button
 CDA      CD audio track
 CDX      FoxPro and Clipper index
 CFG      Configuration
 CGM     CGM vector graphics
 CHK      DOS/Windows corrupted file (Chkdsk)
 CIT       Intergraph scanned image
 COB      COBOL source code,
 COB      Truespace 3-D file
 CLP      Windows clipboard
 CLS      Visual Basic class module
 CMP      JPEG bitmap, LEAD bitmap
 CMP      RichLink composed format
 CNT      Windows help contents
 COM     Executable program
 CPD      Fax cover document
 CPE      Fax cover document
 CPI       DOS code page
 CPL      Windows control panel applets
 CPP      C++ source code
 CPR      Knowledge Access bitmap
 CRD      Cardfile file
 CSV      Comma delimited
 CUR      Cursor
 CUT      Dr. Halo bitmap
 CV5      Canvas 5 vector/bitmap
 DAT      Data
 DB       Paradox table
 DBF      dBASE database
 DBT      dBASE text
 DCA      IBM text
 DCM     DICOM medical image
 DCS      Color separated EPS format
 DCX      Intel fax image
 DCT      Dictionary
 DEF      Definition
 DIB      Windows DIB bitmap
 DIC      Dictionary
 DIF       Spreadsheet
 DISCO   Publishing and Discovering Web Services
 DLG      Dialogue script
 DLL      Dynamic link library
 DOC     Microsoft Word Document (2003-2007)
 DOCX    Microsoft Word Document (2008-)
 DOT      Microsoft Word template
 DPI       Pointline bitmap
 DRV      Driver
 DWG     AutoCAD vector format
 DX       Autotrol document imaging
 DXF      AutoCAD vector format
 ED5      EDMICS bitmap (DOD)
 EMF      Enhanced Windows metafile
 EPS      Encapsulated PostScript
 EXE      Executable program
 FAX      Various fax formats
 FLC      Autodesk animation
 FLI       Autodesk animation
 FLT       Graphics conversion filter
 FMT      dBASE Screen format
 FMV      FrameMaker raster & vector graphics
 FNT      Windows font
 FOG      Fontographer font
 FON      Windows bitmapped font,
 FON      Telephone file
 FOR      FORTRAN source code
 FOT      Windows TrueType font info.
 FPX      FlashPix bitmap
 FRM      dBASE report layout
 FTG      Windows help file links
 FTS      Windows help text search index
 GDF      GDDM format
 GED      Arts & Letters graphics
 GEM     GEM vector graphics
 GID      Windows help global index
 GIF       CompuServe bitmap
 GP4      CALS Group IV - ITU Group IV
 GRA      Microsoft graph
 GRP      Windows ProgMan Group
 GZ       UNIX Gzip
 H         C header
 HED      HighEdit document
 HGL      HP Graphics language
 HLP      Help text
 HPJ       Visual Basic help project
 HPP      C++ program header
 HPL      HP Graphics language
 HT        HyperTerminal
 HTM      HTML document (Web page)
 HTML    HTML document (Web page)
 HTX      HTML extension file
 ICA       IBM MO:DCA - IOCA bitmap
 ICO      Windows icon
 IDC      Internet Database Connector
 IDD      MIDI instrument definition
 IDE       Development environment configuration
 IMG      Macintosh image file
 IMG      GEM Paint bitmap
 INF       Setup information
 INI       Initialization
 JAR      JAVA data

 JFF       JPEG bitmap
 JIF       JPEG bitmap
 JPG      JPEG bitmap
 JS        JavaScript file
 JT        JT Fax
 JTF       JPEG bitmap
 KDC      Kodak Photo bitmap
 KFX      Kofax Group IV fax
 LBL       dBASE label
 LEG      Legacy text
 LIB       Function library
 LIT       Microsoft Reader file
 LOG      Log file
 LQT      Liquid Audio
 LSN      Topic list (CDE)
 LST      List
 LV        LaserView Group IV
 M1V      MPEG file
 M3U      MPEG file
 MAC     MacPaint bitmap
 MAK     Visual Basic/MS C++ project
 MAP      Link editor map
 MBX     Mailbox (e-mail)
 MCS     MathCAD format
 MCW     Word for Macintosh document
 MDB     Access database
 MDF     Mircrosoft SQL server database 
 MET      OS/2 Metafile
 MEU      Menu items
 MDX     dBASE IV multi-index
 MID      MIDI sound file
 MME     MIME-encoded file
 MMF     Microsoft mail file
 MMM     Macromind animation format
 MOD     Eudora script file
 MOV     QuickTime movie
 MPA      MPEG file
 MP2      MPEG file
 MP2V    MPEG file
 MP3      MPEG-1 Layer 3 audio
 MPE      MPEG file
 MPEG    MPEG file
 MPG     MPEG file
 MPP     Microsoft Project
 MSG     Message file
 MSP      M1V  

 MPEG    Microsoft Paint bitmap
 MUS     Music
 MVB     Microsoft Multimedia Viewer
 MYSAM table index
 MYD     MYSQL table data 
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 In addition to this blog, I have authored the premiere book on Netiquette, " Netiquette IQ - A Comprehensive Guide to Improve, Enhance and Add Power to Your Email". You can view my profile, reviews of the book and content excerpts at:
 www.amazon.com/author/paulbabicki
 If you would like to listen to experts in all aspects of Netiquette and communication, try my radio show on BlogtalkRadio  and an online newsletter via paper.li.I have established Netiquette discussion groups with Linkedin and  Yahoo.  I am also a member of the International Business Etiquette and Protocol Group and Minding Manners among others. I regularly consult for the Gerson Lehrman Group, a worldwide network of subject matter experts and I have been contributing to the blogs Everything Email and emailmonday . My work has appeared in numerous publications and I have presented to groups such as The Breakfast Club of NJ Rider University and  PSG of Mercer County, NJ.
 Great Reasons for Purchasing Netiquette IQ

·         Get more email opens.  Improve 100% or more.

·         Receive more responses, interviews, appointments, prospects and sales.

·         Be better understood.

·         Eliminate indecision.

·         Avoid being spammed 100% or more.

·         Have recipient finish reading your email content. 

·         Save time by reducing questions.

·         Increase your level of clarity.

·         Improve you time management with your email.

·        Have quick access to a wealth of relevant email information.

Enjoy most of what you need for email in a single book.
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