I for one, ponder the wisdom of "Away" messages. You know what I'm talking about, right? That is the automatic "reply" email that goes to everyone who sends you an email while you are on vacation. I think it's a poor idea, but that's not what this post is about.
There is a particular problem when one subscribes to listserves. For those who don't know, a listserve allows members to send an email to the list, then it gets forwarded to all the members. They can reply and a public conversation can ensue. I subscribe to several: [ubuntu-users], dedicated to community support of computers running the Ubuntu-Linux operating system; [ssfp], a discussion among Oregon Solo and Small Firm Practitioners (lawyers); [relu], a discussion among Oregon Real Estate and Land Use lawyers. You get the idea. Note that all the names are in square brackets. I listed them that way because the listserv software adds that to their subject lines. It makes sense later.
This post is from an email I sent to [relu] this week. I am adding here since I think it is of general interest even if you don't use lists. Below I briefly describe the problem and a solution. If you must use away messages. It really is an easy fix. Please read a bit further.
The main problem is that, depending on how the listserve is configured, there are a couple of possible results.
(A) Everyone who posts to the list receives an away message (bounce message) from everyone who has set one.
(B) The listserver gets inundated with bounce messages.
(C) With a poorly configured listserver, the result of B is chaos on the list.
(D) With a properly configured listserve, the result of B is that you are unsubscribed.
(E) It wastes bandwidth, especially for our colleagues who are still on dialup (Yes there are some)
(F) Create the risk that something important has a similar sounding title and gets deleted in the crush.
(G) It is a pain in the neck for everyone else. The incident that generated this post was a message sent to RELU that generated 60 emails.
(H) Floods of emails like that are "SPAM-like" behavior. Maybe that is not a problem to the person setting the away message, but MY isp has blacklisted the bar's mail servers more than once.
So here is the fix - quicker to do than to read this far!
Note: Every email client, Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Evolution, etc has different methods and terms. This email does not have exact instructions. But if you are able to figure out how to do an away message, it should be easy to adapt the following.
First, Whether you know it or not, an away message is a "Filter" or "Rule." If you are using that technology, you are already half way there.
Second, Create a create a folder in your email client to hold messages from the list, perhaps a subfolder of "Inbox" perhaps somewhere else, For example, I have a folder for [relu] called "RELU-Folder". In my opinion this is useful even if you don't use away messages. The benefit is that you can read listserve messages all at once when you have time, and not just because they showed up in your inbox. As you will see below, you will not manually move messages to the folder.
Third, Create a "Filter" or "Rule". Tell the filter to examine the Subject line of each email and look for a unique string. For example "[relu]" and move those messages to the RELU-Folder. Read at your leisure.
Fourth, When you are going on vacation, create your away message as usual.
Finally, the the crucial last step. Go to your "Filters" or "Rules" list and find your away message. Move the away message to the bottom of the list. Done! Go on vacation.
Why this works: As mail comes in, your mail client processes the filters / rules from top to bottom, when the "[relu] filter" is activated, the message is moved and the "away message" filter never sees the message and does not reply. Never fear, all the messages that are not filtered out will still get sent the message you desire. But you will no longer be sending an away message to a thousand of your RELU
friends who'll just be jealous that you are on vacation and they are not.
Thank you for reading this far and for considering changing your "away message" practices.
