Re: TMDA (was: new spam functionality added)

[Scott A Crosby <scrosby@cs.rice.edu>]

On Tue, 06 Aug 2002 12:10:34 +0200, Per Abrahamsen <abraham@dina.kvl.dk> writes:

> Scott A Crosby <scrosby@cs.rice.edu> writes:
> 
> > However, if you (purposely or inadvertently) *hide* the fact that you
> > use TMDA. Then you're exploiting the fact that most people will
> > respond out of a psychological need to not feel like they wasted their
> > time. Many people will spend an extra 10 seconds to avoid having their
> > email deleted unread (and thus wasting the results of several minutes
> > work). 
> 
> It is still *their* choice.  I have no obligation to read any email
> send to me.  By not using TMDA, I make it *my* choice, by
> accidentially junking their messages.  By using TMDA, it become
> *their* choice.  I do not care for what *their* reasons will be for
> making *their* choice.
> 

So, why not give them the choice when you send messages out?

By informing them that you use TMDA, it is their choice whether to
respond to your origional message. They may then priortize their time
as they choose.[1]

> I no, I have no intension of munging my headers or signature in order
> to accomodate the people who believe that their message is worth
> several minuttes of their time to write, but not an additional 10
> seconds to ensure it is read.  These people have a problem I refuse to
> make mine, or force on third parties by munging headers.

You are more than willing to place your problem upon others with
robot-reply messages. Why not advertise that fact? That way you not
only get messages from people willing to reply to your robot, but the
only people who will ever write to you are those who are aware of the
invconvenience, and willing to accept it in order to talk to you?

This is the best of both worlds. I, and everyone else, gets to
prioritize my time and avoid unwanted inconvenience. And you only get
messages from people who are willing to accept the inconvenience to
talk to you.

So, why hide your use of TMDA? 

IMHO, having TMDA advertise itself sounds like an excellent
feature. Furthermore, I suspect that it would alleviate many of the
complaints about it. When people send an email, they don't like having
an unsolicited robot-reply; with this feature, they'll know to expect
it.


Scott

[1] In my case, away from being inconvenienced by robot-reply
messages. However, others may consider this professionalism and be
more likely to read such messages.