I actually think ALL CAPS is a lot worse. ALL CAPS is such an early web thing. It implies that someone got online long ago, but never bothered to keep up with online culture. It’s not just yelling, it comes across as intentionally uninformed.

Also, email that’s all lower case with little or no punctuation might have been sent from a phone. I’m still enough of a novice typing on my phone that I can forgive someone for giving up the details. Assuming, of course, it’s an occasional thing from someone I communicate with regularly.

I would like to add to the email etiquette. Is it too much to ask for someone to clean up an email before forwarding? I find that most people only read the last comment anyhow so I try to sum up the email and delete most of the back and forth stuff. I may direct someone to see the comment below (delete all others) for specific stuff such as an address or change in previous information. For personal emails I would like to be able to open it and read it rather than scroll through the 500 other people’s comments that have seen it as well…………..
and please stop with the chain emails. There should be punishment for anyone ages 18-60 that forwards one of these.

@Jelle – Thats interesting. I didn’t know you could set Outlook up to delay sending emails. It’s an excellent idea though.

@Janet – Good point. It is beneficial to put a bit more thought into what name you want to use on your email address. I prefer something like firstname.lastname@domain.com just because it is easy for anyone to remember if they know you and looks professional.

@Tim – Apple Mail has a nice feature for when people start sending you jokes that you don’t want. It lets you bounce the email back so it looks like they have the wrong address. I don’t use it often, but it is very satisfying when I do.

Replying to an existing thread/message and totally changing the subject and topic screws up a lot of mail readers. The new topic ends up getting grouped in the old thread because of how most email clients work.

Commenting on one paragraph of a long email but not editing out the irrelevant parts. Never trimming posts in general in a long exchange is bad.

Adding people who are NOT your personal friends to the list of friends you send jokes, etc.

Using your business email or your employer’s email account to send jokes, etc. I am always amazed the the formal signature blocks that show up in emails with jokes, funny pictures, etc. from friends.

Just because the person before you didn’t delete out dozens or hundreds of email addresses in the mail you were forwarded doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take time to clean it up if you are forwarding it on to more people.

Most email problems represent either laziness or thoughtlessness on the part of the sender, both hardly endearing traits.

My pet peeves:

1) Failing to update the subject line when the topic of the message changes.

2) Failing to put a subject at all!

3) Me-centric subjects – If I am auditing a project called FRED, if I send the project manager an email called ‘FRED project audit’ , the subject contains no useful information as he knows I am auditing his project and he knows the name of his project already! Similarly, if he sends me a message called ‘ABC Co Audit’, that tells me nothing about the email, because almost everything I do is an audit, and I know I work for ABC Co!

Forwarded emails without the dross cut out – sometimes there can be a chain of ten emails!

Forwarded emails with the message ‘FYI’. These give no idea as to *why* the sender thinks that you need to be informed. These can be an underhand attempt to imply that you have agreed with the email content because you have seen it and not objected.

I also find that people treat email communication too casually, using slang and making quips that don’t work when read as cold text. Moreover neither work at all with an international audience.

Then there are those stupid emoticons … especially the animated ones. You are going to look a right fool when one of those comes up as evidence in court.

Top tip: don’t write emails when in a bad mood (angry, irritated, etc), or under the influence!

Using strangely coloured text, especially pastels, makes your message look like a dodgy listing on eBay. Then of course, there are emails written in upper case NEED I SAY MORE?

Use of at least one exclamation mark (!!!!) in every sentence!!!!!!!!!!

I could go on, but I hate it when I get an email from someone who doesn’t know when to stop.

Don’t think it’ll never happen to you… I used to think that, and have been grateful quite a few times that I have the delay!

@Aaron – The backgrounds can be pretty annoying–especially when they don’t render correctly on your computer. I usually suggest that people keep their email formated as simply as possible so it has the greatest chance of looking correct for the recipient. Things have improved a bit. Most email clients support html now, but it is still worth avoiding unless it really adds to your message.

@Jay – Good luck pointing things pointing things out to people. I’ve had the best results (in a work environment) by sending a message out to everyone from HR. Not only do you get the message to the offenders, but you create a sense of peer pressure to keep them from annoying everyone else with their bad email habits.