WWYD - Email Related

[BeachGirlFLA]

I have a friend who sends out emails (often of a political nature) to his friends and family. I enjoy his emails...unfortunately, he does not use the BCC line and his nephew (who is in his 30's) has picked up all the email addresses from the list and has started sending out emails of his own to the entire list when his uncle sends something he doesn't agree with...often inflammatory emails, calling people of my party or anyone who is not an atheist "stupid", "idiots", etc. Yesterday, I emailed him and said "Do NOT send me any more emails." He came back with, "Why...are you afraid of me?" I didn't answer....just saved the email. I'm planning to let his Internet Provider know he is sending harassing emails if he continues to email me (and I've let his uncle - who doesn't appreciate the fact that the guy started sending emails to his email list in the first place - know that that's what I plan to do.) I know I could just block him, but that doesn't solve the problem of his sending the same emails to other friends...if he gets in trouble for sending harassing emails, maybe he'll stop. Am I doing the right thing?

 

[Jennasis]

Does your e-mail have a way to block incoming msgs from a particular address?

 

[RadioNate]

IMO no - I'd ask the uncle to talk to him and teach YOUR friend to use BCC. Block the guy. Your other friends can deal with it on their own. They are grown ups. If you should be mad at anyone, why aren't you bothered that your friend gave up your email to a stranger? Why aren't you upset that he is sending political propaganda to someone who he must know doesn't agree with his position?

Going to the ISP is over the top and could result in more trouble than it is worth?

Is it only 'harassing' to you because you don't agree with his position? Maybe he feels like the emails your friend sends are 'harassing.'

However, I find sending ANY sort of political propaganda to friends or family via email a disgusting habit so maybe I'm not the best one to comment.

 

[agnes!]

Someone needs to teach your friend the wonders of managing group e-mails.

Just delete the offensive ones and do not respond any further to your friend's relative, *seriously*. The guy sounds like he might have a screw loose. And maybe the relative received some of your friend's e-mails 'funnies' and didn't appreciate them?

agnes!

 

[Keli]

My brother started doing the same thing with emails that my sister was sending to a friends and family. It tended to be items of a religious nature that set him off and I think that came as a surprise to my sister since she wasn't aware my brother had changed his opinion when it came to religion.
I think my sister just stopped including my brother in her mailing list for those types of emails and now all is well.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

The uncle has already talked to him and told him not to send his friends emails. If the nephew only sent emails with his opinions instead of calling other people "stupid", etc. then I would just simply delete the emails. I don't appreciate being called names for my beliefs. Also, once I told him straight out not to email me he should have stopped not immediately sent me another email asking if I was afraid of him. I'm not angry at my friend because he just doesn't understand some computer things. I promised him I'd teach him about BCC the next time I was over visiting him and I will do that. I guess since everyone seems to feel that going to the Internet Provider is over the top, I will just block the guy...obviously, he's not intelligent or respectful enough to wise up about the fact that what he's doing is wrong.
RadioNate, I don't see any problem with my friend sending me the political and religious emails he sends me because we share the same beliefs. He didn't know when he initially included his nephew in his emails that he didn't share those beliefs as well, considering that the entire rest of his family (including his brother, the nephew's father) shares them - as do all his friends. His nephew was the only one on that list that didn't and unfortunately he sees a need to be a real jerk about it, instead of just respectfully asking my friend not to send him political or religious emails that he doesn't agree with.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I would just block him. Your friends and family can do the same.

I would also ask the friend to take my name off of their batch emails as you do not want your email for view.

If the friend would continue to send my email around after asking them to stop, I would block them too.

Then again I cannot stand getting political emails.

 

[perdidobay]

My uncle constantly sends out emails of a polictical and religious nature I do not agree with, for awhile I just blocked his email, now I just delete them without opening them. Problem is my Dad sometimes forwards them and I have to open the email to find out what it is.

 

[HM]

I'd just block him. Let everyone else deal with it in their own way.

 

[Disney Doll]

I'd just ignore him or block him or delete what you see coming from him without any response whatsoever. If you don't feed the troll, he'll eventually look elsewhere for his jollies.

 

[WDSearcher]

The uncle has already talked to him and told him not to send his friends emails. If the nephew only sent emails with his opinions instead of calling other people "stupid", etc. then I would just simply delete the emails. I don't appreciate being called names for my beliefs. Also, once I told him straight out not to email me he should have stopped not immediately sent me another email asking if I was afraid of him. I'm not angry at my friend because he just doesn't understand some computer things. I promised him I'd teach him about BCC the next time I was over visiting him and I will do that. I guess since everyone seems to feel that going to the Internet Provider is over the top, I will just block the guy...obviously, he's not intelligent or respectful enough to wise up about the fact that what he's doing is wrong.

You may not appreciate being called names for your beliefs, but you have to ask yourself two things:

1. Does this person's opinion matter to you? and
2. Is what he's saying considered to be free speech?

If the answer to #1 is "no" and #2 is "yes" (which is what I suspect), then just block the guy and be done with it. As a PP said, you're not responsible for whatever annoying e-mails anyone else may receive -- they can deal with him on their own. They're all grown-ups. And ... some of them may well appreciate his rantings and might be upset at YOU for censoring them from everyone simply because you don't like them.

You seem to be reacting more to the tone of the annoying e-mails rather than to the content. And, last I heard, it wasn't against the law or any policy of the internet to be a donkey's behind. That's why the PTB created e-mail blocking.

 

[sbell111]

IMO no - I'd ask the uncle to talk to him and teach YOUR friend to use BCC. Block the guy. Your other friends can deal with it on their own. They are grown ups. If you should be mad at anyone, why aren't you bothered that your friend gave up your email to a stranger? Why aren't you upset that he is sending political propaganda to someone who he must know doesn't agree with his position?

Going to the ISP is over the top and could result in more trouble than it is worth?

Is it only 'harassing' to you because you don't agree with his position? Maybe he feels like the emails your friend sends are 'harassing.'

However, I find sending ANY sort of political propaganda to friends or family via email a disgusting habit so maybe I'm not the best one to comment.

I completely agree with this post.

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

You may not appreciate being called names for your beliefs, but you have to ask yourself two things:

1. Does this person's opinion matter to you? and
2. Is what he's saying considered to be free speech?

If the answer to #1 is "no" and #2 is "yes" (which is what I suspect), then just block the guy and be done with it. As a PP said, you're not responsible for whatever annoying e-mails anyone else may receive -- they can deal with him on their own. They're all grown-ups. And ... some of them may well appreciate his rantings and might be upset at YOU for censoring them from everyone simply because you don't like them.

You seem to be reacting more to the tone of the annoying e-mails rather than to the content. And, last I heard, it wasn't against the law or any policy of the internet to be a donkey's behind. That's why the PTB created e-mail blocking.

I agree with you except for two things.
1) Most of my friend's other friends have complained to him about his nephew.
2) It may not be against any law or policy of the internet to be a donkey's behind....but it is against internet policy to continue to email someone after they have told you not to do so.
However, in this case I will take the high road....block him and advise my friends to do the same (and teach my friend that was originally sending the emails how to use BCC.)
I can't understand the lack of respect (and that's what actually makes me angry) because I sometimes go overboard in showing respect, I think. I have both sides of my family on my Facebook account. One side is completely Democratic and the other side is completely conservative Christian and Republican and in order to not upset the side I disagree with, I simply don't even post my political opinions on Facebook unless I'm responding to something that someone from the side I agree with posts (and then the other side can't see what I said.)

 

[dawson5]

My uncle does this also, had something of a same issue on someone replying with a different opinion. I replied to my uncle and his friend about "reply" and not "reply all." I think I got one more after that, which I did the same thing.

As for the emails (political and religious), anymore I don't open them but I won't go so far as to block him either. The way I see it, he's getting on in years (actually just had a heart attack last week) and I see any email I get from his as a sign that at least he's alive and probably doing well enough to get on the computer.

As for the blind carbon copy, why not just do it over the internet/email. I'm sure there is something that is already online, if not it's easy enough to do screenshots of step by step how-to. This will get it done sooner and probably only take a few minutes of your time and they will be able to refer back to it if they get stuck.

 

[DisneyBamaFan]

If you ask him to stop calling you, coming to your house, or emailing you and he continues, he is harassing you. I would give him one more warning in email, then notify the ISP. If that doesn't suffice, call the police.

Some people think that the internet and email are somehow omitted from standard legal protocols, but they are not. It is illegal to harass people via the internet or email and you should take whatever steps you deem appropriate to end the behavior. Yes, you can choose to set up a filter, just as you can choose to ignore a phone number of refuse to answer the door - but why should you have to?

 

[FireDancer]

Depending on who you use for email you can either block him or start marking his messages as spam and eventually your service will start auto-routing it there.

Legally sending out unsolicited email can be considered spam, and that is what he is doing. Since you already requested he stop you probably can get his ISP involved, but that seems a bit drastic.

The real issue is with your uncle's complete lack of email etiquette. The inability to understand the proper use of either the BCC or the Reply All button is pretty infuriating.

 

[npmommie]

The gymnastics team uses email to communicate to parents, everytime I get an email, I can see everyone else's email address. It really annoys me. but thankfully no one has used the batch to do anything like this.

i do have a friend who batch emails religious and political information. totally different viewpoints other than my own, i just delete it. even if it was my own viewpoint i would be annoyed, the same with all those jokes that fly around the internet.
i would block his email address.

 

[MICKEY88]

if your friend is annoyed by the nephew, why doesn't he drop him from the mailing list, ?? sounds like he wants to stir up the nephew..

 

[BeachGirlFLA]

As for the blind carbon copy, why not just do it over the internet/email. I'm sure there is something that is already online, if not it's easy enough to do screenshots of step by step how-to. This will get it done sooner and probably only take a few minutes of your time and they will be able to refer back to it if they get stuck.

I didn't think to look online for that. He uses AOL (the actual program AOL...not just the website....while I have AOL mail as well as Yahoo, I don't have the program because it caused a lot of problems with my computer when I did have it) and I didn't know where the BCC would be located. I'll go google it now.

 

[Boo'sMom]

Just block him, move on...