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Stop Microsoft users sending 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header

neilzone.co.uk

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Re: Stop Microsoft users sending 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header

#291

Post by techdmn »

teeray wrote: post #239
joelthelion wrote: post #168

In an outlook only company, reactions make a ton of sense. They save tons of "great, thank you " emails. Of course you can still send real thank you emails when you're genuinely thankful!

I literally had to set up a “Congratulations / Congrats” filter to auto-delete those emails because they were so frequent and numerous when various accomplishments across the org were announced. The party popper emoji at least makes that far more tolerable.

I see a lot of those too, and I am confused at the purpose. Clearly congratulations are warranted, but it would be much less wasteful of everyone's time if those were sent directly to the person being congratulated, rather than to the entire org / company / world.

Is this just the sender looking for visibility? Does the recipient appreciate that yet another middle manager CC'd the whole company on a single sentence congratulatory message? Is there some other social function at work here that I don't understand?

Sometimes I think it would be funny if all the individual contributors coordinated to ALSO reply-all with "Congratulations", but it would become clear pretty quickly that something was up, and it's a mean thing to do to whomever is being congratulated.

Re: Stop Microsoft users sending 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header

#293

Post by EvanAnderson »

fwip wrote: post #246
OJFord wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh interesting, I have come across that, but only one person (both uses it like that and misinterpreted it when we worked with people that ack'd, which of course I saw coming & could explain since I was accustomed to his use) - didn't realise that was common too. (I would use agh/argh/ugh for that personally, depending on precise feeling(!))

Cathy (from newspaper funny pages) would frequently use "ACK!" as an exclamation of distress/frustration.

This must be why my wife asks if I'm okay (or if I saw a spider, etc) when I reply to her text messages with "ACK".

Re: Stop Microsoft users sending 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header

#294

Post by ensignavenger »

xyst wrote: post #142

Apple added the same thing for iMessage/SMS. It worked as expected if the group message was all Apple users. But if you were the unfortunate person outside the ecosystem, you would get spammed with ‘{person} liked “{message}”’. In some cases, people would react to the reaction leading to some ridiculous chains of text.

As an Android user, I often wonder if Apple users realize how stupid their replies look to non-Apple users. I wonder if I should tell them or just move on.

Re: Stop Microsoft users sending 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header

#295

Post by psunavy03 »

artinmg wrote: post #219
mavhc wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want my messages acknowledged, it's just The Generals Problem. I assume you've read it and understood it, if you don't understand or agree, let me know, otherwise don't waste my time, I don't need people to say Thanks, you're paying me to do it

Although it seems the military metaphor of Two Generals' Problem which I assume you're referencing is incidental, it's ironic that in the actual military all communication from superior to subordinate must be acknowledged perfunctorily, at least in very disciplined services like the United States Marine Corps. For example, if a sergeant says to a private "It's a nice day outside.", the private is obliged to respond,…

If this is a thing (never saw it in 20 years of active and reserve Navy service), it must be limited not just to the Marine Corps, but the ground side of the Corps, not the air side.

Sure, there's norms around how you talk on the radio, standing watch on the bridge, on chat channels for command and control, etc. But the rest of the time, the rest of the military talks to each other more or less like normal people with the addition of acknowledging relative rank.

Re: Stop Microsoft users sending 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header

#296

Post by ensignavenger »

Hnrobert42 wrote: post #116
p51-remorse wrote: post #11

I kind of get why we don’t like this in email, but for SMS and Slack I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reactions. They’re a way to say “I received this and have a positive reaction to it, with no further communication necessary”. Replaces a lot of useless typing I had to do to sound polite when saying “fine, no further comment”. And then getting a notification from the other party acknowledging my acknowledgment… yuck.

My friend interned at the FAA 20 years ago. He said the norm there was to write "Concur without comment." I thought that was brilliant. Of course, when I use it in conversation, no one gets my reference and thinks I am weird. But that is going to happen anyway.

I usually shorten it to simply "I concur", if no comment follows, it is a given. Maybe if you are using a lossy message format where a potential comment might get left out it would be necessary to make that part clear, but for most things it is a given.

Re: Stop Microsoft users sending 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header

#297

Post by falcolas »

valcargo wrote: post #270
falcolas wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, since HN tends to dislike short content-less posts, which means quite often unless we have something more to say, we do not respond at all. That is, there is no ack signal.

I know of a few company cultures like this. You can count on people to take action where action is requested, and to take note where taking note is expected. Everything else is just noise, and employees tend to keep the noise level quite low.

> You can count on people to take action where action is requested, and to take note where taking note is expected.

Unfortunately, I work with humans and technology, both of whom are fallible. As such, reminders and prompts are occasionally required. Being able to tell if a message was received, read, and understood is a very useful signal.

Re: Stop Microsoft users sending 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header

#299

Post by artisanspam »

joelthelion wrote: post #168

In an outlook only company, reactions make a ton of sense. They save tons of "great, thank you " emails. Of course you can still send real thank you emails when you're genuinely thankful!

That’s the ideal but it’s not what I’ve observed in practice. In my org, people send reactions and reply all emails like this. It’s just more distraction.

Re: Stop Microsoft users sending 'reactions' to email by adding a postfix header

#300

Post by bluGill »

CalRobert wrote: post #178
maeil wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come over to my place and we can possibly be the first people ever to bond over their home wifi SSIDs ;)

I really miss the days when people put time and thought in to their SSIDs instead of using the defaults

My parents were 'CIA moble survalance unit'.
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