The agency that I work for runs a good number of listservs for library staff and organizations around the state. As a result, we see a lot of the messages that get sent to these listservs. Most users are responsible but there are those who are not. The latter not only clutter up the inboxes of the listserv’s recipients, but they can cause confusion or frustration.
We’ve seen some…things. Please, please, learn how to post to listservs appropriately.
- No subject, signature or greeting. We can grumpily compromise on not having a greeting but recipients really do need a subject line and a signature. What’s this post about? Who sent it? Psychic email does not yet exist. It’s also important to remember that your email client is not everyone’s email client. Please include your email address in your signature. Not all clients will show this by default (looking at you, Gmail). Learn how to create good email signature.
- Not everyone needs to see your response. Sending a response for only one person to entire listserv is inbox clutter and the sort of thing that makes people wonder: “Do I really need to be on this listserv?”
- Replying all. This is a collarary of #2. “Reply all” is not only the bane of many email conversations, it can be on listservs, also.
- Replying with a reaction, especially emoji. Please. Stop. Doing. This. Not only on listservs, but IRL in email. Emoji reactions are meant for instant messaging and texting. Another instance of inbox clutter.
Everyone using listservs thanks you in advance.
