OK, so today I learned a valuable lesson, which I thought I would pass along to you at no cost other than your time spent reading about it. Today, I received yet-another-message-designed-to-spread-fear-insecurity-and-paranoia. (This one involved a woman filling her car at a gas station, and an assailant who jumped in the backseat, etc...) I checked it out at snopes.com and discovered what I already knew, that this e-mail is as old as e-mail itself, and maybe (just maybe) based on a half-truth.

I hit Reply, and told this person (My Tae Kwon Do Instructor) that the e-mail was junk, and he shouldn't pass things along of this nature without checking them out, further, that it was better not to pass them along at all. Perhaps a touch cold, but certainly how I felt. I decided that he could send a retraction to Tae Kwon Do School if he thought it was necessary.

I was surprised when immediately after sending my reply, it returned to my own mailbox! On closer inspection, I realized when I hit Reply, the message went the the Entire Group at Yahoo.com!!!! All the students, All the other instructors. (Oh boy.)

Needless to say, I am still in shock, (just realized this ten minutes ago...) But the lesson I learned is this. In E-mail, when leaving phone messages, when writing letters, etc. Realize your communication could be repeated, forwarded, posted, blogged, recorded and shown on COPS, etc, so don't say something through other mediums that you wouldn't say to the person, um..., in person.

...and double check the address before you press Send...

Blog on,
-C

Labels: A Day In The Life, Etiquette, idiots