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Email Introduction Etiquette

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Re: Email Introduction Etiquette

#91

Post by lowboy »

peterwwillis wrote: post #48
potatolicious wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're not the same thing. An "ask" is the item being requested, it is not the question. "Can I have a cookie?" is a question, the cookie is the ask. An ask is implicitly tangible or substantial. "What's the weather today?" is a question, it doesn't really have an ask, since the item being demanded is trivial. It exists in business jargon specifically to separate minor requests "can you send me that file?" from subs…

Alright, so 'ask' here is just synonym for 'request', then. Looked it up... most dictionaries don't have a noun form of 'ask', though macmillan has a separate page just for it. (It's also a Scandinavian myth about the first man made from an ash tree, but that's probably not the intended use from the OP)

Google "define:request" yields this for a noun: "an act of asking politely or formally for something."

An ask isn't "an act of asking", it's the object/subject of a request. So it's not really a synonym, IMO.

Re: Email Introduction Etiquette

#92

Post by [deleted] »

gngeal wrote: post #70
eternalseven wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You already understand there are different kinds. Some people shut down under fairly minimal pressure/stress, especially if their lives are already busy. I'm with you, but I've come to realize the importance of following such rules in order to keep things smooth ultimately for myself.

I have a paper from my shrink that says that essentially, I have had a blind spot for these things since my childhood. Only in recent years have I started to understand what it means. My "if you have something to tell me, why do you dance around it?" brain simply does not compute these things.

[deleted]

Re: Email Introduction Etiquette

#94

Post by snowwrestler »

to3m wrote: post #51
wpietri wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not claiming it isn't horrific; I wouldn't say it myself. But "ask" is a pretty clear term of art. Also, I'm not sure Hacker News denizens can really complain too much about other people's jargon. Among many others, we inflicted "blog" and "tweet" on the world.

`Blog' and `tweet' are at least neologisms. `Ask' on the other hand has been a verb for a very long time, and has so far resisted being made a noun. That suggests to me, and probably to most people, that it's a verb, solidly so, and not to be used as a noun. Fighting this kind of tradition will be an uphill struggle. A losing battle. A tall order. (For those still in primary school, those are all different ways of sa…

This usage of "ask" is at least 10 years old because I heard and used it in my last job, which was over 10 years ago. From my perspective you're the one looking to fight an uphill battle trying to put this genie back in a bottle.

Just because it is new to you does not make it useless or wrong. English grammar evolves; that's part of what makes it such an expressive and useful language. Another recent example:

http://m.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/english-...

Re: Email Introduction Etiquette

#95

Post by trhaynes »

bentcorner wrote: post #54
rayiner wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I presume the "it doesn't exist in any other communication medium" refers to "the social dynamics" not the concept of CC and BCC.

Yes - things like Twitter, IM group chats (FB/Hangouts/even IRC), all have a single "ring" of attention. A message is either to you, or to a group. There is no way for the sender to dial up/down the level of "attention" or send other signals when sending a message. Some examples (admittedly, these are how they are used in my workplace and life, other people may perceive these differently, which is also interesting):…

> CC is sometimes used as a "heads up". It means "I'm interested in you reading this, but I'm not asking you to do anything right now."

It bothers me that Gmail combines the To and CC recipients into a single line. You have to do some investigating to figure out who's on To and who's on CC.

Re: Email Introduction Etiquette

#96

Post by diydsp »

oh_sigh wrote: post #16
peterwwillis wrote: post #12

> makes a specific ask You mean ask a specific question? Or is this silicon valley jargon? edit: Through the power of The Googles I now realize he could have been using the stock market form of 'ask'. It makes some sense since you're asking for an investment. Not that I like it any better... The price a seller is willing to accept for a security, also known as the offer price. Along with the price, the ask quote will…

It's an "almost anywhere business is done in America" jargon.

lol "Dawn, who do we use for Chinese?" (heard approx 1997 in u.s.)

Re: Email Introduction Etiquette

#97

Post by sgustard »

dudus wrote: post #52
goblin89 wrote: post #36

Can anyone clarify—why BCC? More precisely, what purpose does moving Mark to BCC, and then acknowledging that and addressing him in the letter, serve? Why not just exclude him from the conversation completely, or leave in CC if you're still addressing him?

Most people don't make a good use of BCC. Another instance where it is useful is when asking a question at a mail list but asking that anyone who answers only addresses the you not the whole email list. Just send the email with the list in BCC, and that's gonna be automatic.

No, that's what Reply-To is for.

Re: Email Introduction Etiquette

#98

Post by Myrmornis »

gcv wrote: post #45
peterwwillis wrote: post #12

> makes a specific ask You mean ask a specific question? Or is this silicon valley jargon? edit: Through the power of The Googles I now realize he could have been using the stock market form of 'ask'. It makes some sense since you're asking for an investment. Not that I like it any better... The price a seller is willing to accept for a security, also known as the offer price. Along with the price, the ask quote will…

It's nasty language change which has spread, kind of like "I spoke to she about that problem" is spreading. Not specific to SV, but extremely common here.

Seriously, "spoke to she"? I've never heard that. And I dread to think of the blood-boiling it would cause in me if I were to hear it... As gcv says below, "Mary and I" as the object of the verb is annoyingly common, even among well-educated people. No, it's not language evolution; it's wrong!

edit: ah, you're gcv :)

Re: Email Introduction Etiquette

#100

Post by pbreit »

pbreit wrote: post #61
swalkergibson wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tend to agree with you here. In the scenario proposed by the article, the busy person is still essentially doing the same amount of work. Having to consider the intro, reading up on the subject and the requester, etc, etc. If the answer is a flat no, then so be it, but let them hear it directly from the person. I find it hard to believe that somebody could be so busy that taking a few minutes to respond to such a r…

The problem isn't that the "busy person" is too busy to respond, it's that the "busy person" did not request to be involved and should be forced to be the bearer of the bad news.

oops...should not be forced.
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