-273: 9 August 2003

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9 August 2003 - 3:22 pm

I don't like subject lines on email. If I just took the time to write three paragraphs about something, why should I then try to summarize it in a few words? Subject lines just cause people not to read the entire message. Besides, its not like other messages have subject lines. I don't write a little summary of a letter on the envelope before mailing it, and I don't provide a subject when I leave a voicemail message. So why should I have to come up with one for email? Enough is enough. I'm going to stop using subjects whenever it is appropriate for me to do so.

Posted by on 9 August 2003 at 3:23 PM

Comments

Generating metadata can be a pain ( http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3584 ), but it's a courtesy that's essential for email.

Say, hypothetically, that you have more than three messages in your inbox, or multiple messages from the same person. Maybe, just maybe, you have multiple messages from the same person AND those messages concern separate topics. Or maybe you have multiple messages on the same topic, and they're from several different people. I know, seems pretty far fetched, but it might happen every once in a while. Like maybe every time you check your mail.

I haven't received a subject-less email for a couple years, but if I did, I'd probably delete it without looking inside.

Posted by Charlie on 9 August 2003 - 8:20 PM

But Charlie, why do any of those situations matter? Do I really need to know that the three emails in my inbox from the same person concern different topics? If I'm going to read them all, it doesn't matter. And if I can't tell after reading them that they aren't supposed to be related, then whoever wrote them has some communications problems. More to the point, despite what the subject line says, I'm most likely going to read the email in my inbox in the order it came in, so why bother with the subject? And if you got an email from someone you knew, would you actually delete it without reading it? I wouldn't.

Posted by david on 10 August 2003 - 12:54 AM

I agree, David. I absolutely hate subject lines with a passion, and wrote a post on it a long time ago. I have just completely stopped using them.

Posted by Nathan on 10 August 2003 - 9:30 AM

I do read my mail out of order, because if I have 20 new messages, I need to prioritize. Some things can wait.

When I get an email, it isn't read once, then deleted. It's read, then reread once or twice over the next few days, then archived, and then possibly searched for a week later, or maybe a year later. I can't imagine the horror of mailboxes filled with email upon email indexed only by the sender's name and the time it was received. It's kind of like going to a music store that sells by the song, where each song is missing it's album name and song name, instead labeled only by musician, release date, and track number. Song titles, like subject lines, don't have to perfectly match what they label, but they need to be there.

A quick glance down the list of subject lines reminds me of exactly what's in my inbox. The subject isn't a summary, it's a keyword or two that triggers the full memory of an email. If email didn't have subjects, I'd have to start looking through all of my pending mail every morning. Human minds work better with short phrases than they do with numbers and dates. So much so that if email systems didn't already universally have subject lines, an ad hoc subject line system would probably emerge on it's own in any organization.

If got a subject-less email from someone I knew, there's a good chance I'd delete it, and then tell them to resend it with a subject line if it was something important. But I certainly wouldn't read it, not unless I was really really far down on my list of ways to procrastinate. I'd be more reluctant to delete it if I'd never gotten mail from that sender before, but it's a pretty bad way to initiate conversation with somebody, because it's a sign that they don't care about my time. It's just plain rude to send email without a subject line.

Posted by Charlie on 10 August 2003 - 11:52 AM

All right, I concede that I am wrong on this, and I'll continue to use subject lines. However, I can't resist this. Charlie, are you saying that your time is more effectively spent deleting a subject-line-less email and then asking the person who sent it (by email perhaps?) to resend it if its important than to just read the email?

Posted by david on 11 August 2003 - 11:14 PM

How about:

Subject: see below

Posted by rkc on 17 August 2003 - 8:37 PM

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How about: Subject: see below All right, I concede that I am wrong on this, and I'll continue to use subject lines. However, I can't resist this. Charlie, are you saying that your time is more effectively spent deleting a subject-line-less email and then asking the person who sent it (by email perhaps?) to resend it if its important than to just read the email? I do read my mail out of order, because if I have 20 new messages, I need to prioritize. Some things can wait. When I get an email, it isn't read once, then deleted. It's read, then reread once or twice over the next few days, then archived, and then possibly searched for a week later, or maybe a year later. I can't imagine the horror of mailboxes filled with email upon email indexed only by the sender's name and the time it was received. It's kind of like going to a music store that sells by the song, where each song is missing it's album name and song name, instead labeled only by musician, release date, and track number. Song titles, like subject lines, don't have to perfectly match what they label, but they need to be there. A quick glance down the list of subject lines reminds me of exactly what's in my inbox. The subject isn't a summary, it's a keyword or two that triggers the full memory of an email. If email didn't have subjects, I'd have to start looking through all of my pending mail every morning. Human minds work better with short phrases than they do with numbers and dates. So much so that if email systems didn't already universally have subject lines, an ad hoc subject line system would probably emerge on it's own in any organization. If got a subject-less email from someone I knew, there's a good chance I'd delete it, and then tell them to resend it with a subject line if it was something important. But I certainly wouldn't read it, not unless I was really really far down on my list of ways to procrastinate. I'd be more reluctant to delete it if I'd never gotten mail from that sender before, but it's a pretty bad way to initiate conversation with somebody, because it's a sign that they don't care about my time. It's just plain rude to send email without a subject line. I agree, David. I absolutely hate subject lines with a passion, and wrote a post on it a long time ago. I have just completely stopped using them. But Charlie, why do any of those situations matter? Do I really need to know that the three emails in my inbox from the same person concern different topics? If I'm going to read them all, it doesn't matter. And if I can't tell after reading them that they aren't supposed to be related, then whoever wrote them has some communications problems. More to the point, despite what the subject line says, I'm most likely going to read the email in my inbox in the order it came in, so why bother with the subject? And if you got an email from someone you knew, would you actually delete it without reading it? I wouldn't. Generating metadata can be a pain ( http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3584 ), but it's a courtesy that's essential for email. Say, hypothetically, that you have more than three messages in your inbox, or multiple messages from the same person. Maybe, just maybe, you have multiple messages from the same person AND those messages concern separate topics. Or maybe you have multiple messages on the same topic, and they're from several different people. I know, seems pretty far fetched, but it might happen every once in a while. Like maybe every time you check your mail. I haven't received a subject-less email for a couple years, but if I did, I'd probably delete it without looking inside.
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