We seem to go through these cycles every so often. Peter gets far worse beat downs on RECMGMT-UK. That said, I would suggest extremely strongly to everyone that they take time to understand how to use their office tools. Email is one of the most important tools that you have on your desktop. If you subscribe to a million different things and have all sorts of information pushed to your Inbox, you're going to feel like you're drowning. Every email reader and web-based email system allows you to filter or tag email based on specific rules, thus removing certain emails from your Inbox. This allows you to triage your email and move low priority items that you get regularly into folders or tagging groups where you can review them at a later date or time. Since free email accounts are also readily available, you should consider getting a Yahoo or Gmail account for non-essential email. Perhaps Listserve postings go there along with advertising from retailers
 that you've signed up with. This will keep your business email Inbox free of non-critical items.

Over and above all that (and in 2011 we shouldn't have to talk to people about this), think about the tone of your emails and the audience that will receive them, particularly a mailing list audience. Fred mentioned Netiquette with good reason. The RIM community is very small. But there are still over 1500 or 2000 people subscribing to RECMGMT-L. Some of us have been around for a very long time (I joined RECMGMT-L in 1993) and, from time to time, we see episodes of mudslinging happen for no good reason. It doesn't do anyone well to insult someone in public like this, and in the process demonstrate complete and total ignorance of technology. Don't tell me that it is "too hard" or "I'm not technical". You are hopefully somewhat educated and working in a field that REQUIRES an understanding of electronic records and electronic record-keeping systems. I'm not asking anyone to describe the manner in which an email routes across the Internet, but I am asking
 everyone to understand how to make the email client on their computer filter messages.

And if you don't want to get email, don't subscribe to a Listserve. I have yet to subscribe to a Listserve that doesn't get wrapped around the axle from time to time with some debate or social chatter that takes on a life of its own. You have to realize that some topic will set people off and cause a message avalanche. Or a glitch (as once happened) when an Out of Office autoresponse had several hundred messages dump into every subscriber's Inbox. You don't want any of that in your primary work Inbox.

Use your technology tools properly, do your homework, and be civil. 'nuf said.

On a lighter note, tonight's fun will involve using RDP on my iPad to connect to my work laptop while it is still in the office. Why? Because I'm a geek like that. And maybe I don't need / want to haul my computer bag around with me all the time. Or maybe because that's what the cool kids at work do...

 
Patrick Cunningham, CRM, FAI
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"Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier." 
-- Colin Powell


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