Alacrity of the Commander
An extensive guide to the operative specifics of command…“Email Best Practices”
Introduction
Email is the basic form of communication in the Dark Brotherhood. Before chat clients, instant messaging, message boards, or even websites, the Brotherhood uses email. Without it, the Brotherhood would cease to exist. Email is:
- Ubiquitous: We all have an email address
- Non-synchronous: Two people need not be online simultaneously to transmit messages
- Efficient: Messages usually arrive within seconds
- Cost-effective and available: Free for most, and available through any number of sources
- Simple: Anyone who has ever 'snail-mailed' a letter will find email even easier
- Robust: Though simple, sometimes more advanced functions are required and most email systems provide such functionalities.
- Recording: Email is a great way to keep records of important documents, facts, quotes, conversations.
Email is an invaluable resource for the Brotherhood. And yet, we often take email for granted, sending out insipid and revolting emails while assuming the recipients can read and interpret our electronic verbal refuse. We may not flame our friends, but we abuse them via email with our offensive and ignorant practices.
Email does not need to be taken for granted and misused. We can be kind to each other in email and simultaneously help ourselves by effectively using the efficient communication tool.
As a warning, not all email programs will have all the functions listed herein, and terminology varies from program to program. This document is more aimed at personal email practices, so having the all the functions described below is not necessary.
This document is for everyone in the Brotherhood, particularly leaders. Preferably, you can develop good email habits before you become a leader, but even old Dark Siders can learn new Force Powers.
Benefits of good practices
Communication is the hallmark of a good leader, and email is the most basic form of communication in the DB. Putting more than a nanosecond of thought and energy into writing your emails shows. Your thoughts will be much clearer, understandable. You will be less prone to dashing off asinine, two-word spam-esque messages or flaming people. Your affinity towards verbosity will abate. In general, you will become a better writer even if you are not trying to become one.
Organization will set you free, as many wise persons have said. Such is the case with email. A few minutes a day keeping your inbox under control will greatly aid you. You can state with certainty if someone sent you a file, and you can find that file with ease. In addition, organizing your emails will enable you to track your unit's activity more efficiently. If you set your inbox up just so, you may not even need to use a spreadsheet to monitor your unit's activity (though one is always recommended; double-recording of information never hurts).
Conversely, bad email practices can dramatically decrease your activity levels, damage your ability to lead, and generally wreak havoc on your state of mental health. From misplaced competition entries to unread important emails to an increase in apathy whenever you open your inbox, bad email practices can be very detrimental to your enjoyment of and career in the Brotherhood.
Practices: Good practices to remember
Use an email address specifically for the Brotherhood
This is a good organization practice at the highest level. Wading through DB emails to find a critical email regarding real life events is time-consuming and a pain. Instead, create a new email account specifically for the Brotherhood. There are several very good free online email systems (Gmail comes to mind), and many ISPs offer multiple inboxes for no charge.
Email punctually
The general rule for a leader is that all email should be responded to within 24 to 48 hours. Even that standard is rarely good enough; high level leaders should aim to reply within 12 to 24 hours. If the email is regarding a large subject that will take you a significant amount of time to review and respond to, send a preliminary email in response that states when others should expect a full response. Flag the email to ensure you don’t lose it while you work on the subject matter. When you say you will respond by a certain time, respond by that time. That is simply basic courtesy. If you cannot reply by the stated time, say so apologetically and give a time that you can respond by.
Keep your inbox empty
One of the best practices you can have is to keep an empty inbox. As you read and respond to messages, archive the ones that are no longer needed. This includes sorting them into folders by subject, or even just an archive folder. This will allow you to keep your inbox filled only with items that need your attention. There is nothing worse than an inbox that is so overwhelming that you can’t even force yourself to begin replying. Keeping your inbox clean will go a long way toward your timely responses to emails.
Read all your email
Fairly obvious, but vital at higher levels (the higher you go, the more emails you receive). Even if all you do is read your unread messages once and close your email program, you will still be in better shape than if you only read a portion of your unread messages. An once-over of all your emails will allow you to segregate (mentally or via folders, see below) important and urgent messages from GoogleGroups filler. In addition, if you allow your unread messages to pile up, you will find yourself shying away from even opening your inbox. If you get twenty emails a day but only read ten, you will have fifty unread emails waiting for you within four days.
Sometimes, reading all your unread messages in one sitting is untenable—e.g. returning from a week-long leave and finding 300+ emails waiting for you; in these instances, scan the subjects of your unread messages and read those of the seemingly greatest import and urgency.
Read all your email, THEN reply
A slight addendum to the above: read all unread messages before you reply to any of them. This is especially true for threads as someone may have already said what you were about to say.
When confronted with a mass of emails, parse out and read the important ones first
Often when returning from a Leave of Absence or even a few hours away from the computer, you will find yourself staring at a bulging inbox. First, relax. Second, delete the spam (the real spam, not the email list filler). Third, sort your mail into piles from the most to least urgent (feel free to create temporary folders if you so desire). Usually, the most urgent and important messages will be sent to you directly (i.e. Not via GoogleGroups), and often are easy to spot by the massive thread that accompanies it. Another way to find important emails quickly is to hop on to IRC and ask if anything major occurred.
Reply when solicited
If someone asks you directly for a response, respond. You need not respond via email—IRC and instant messaging also works—email is slightly better in that the other person can find your email much faster than your two-sentence chat log. If you try to catch the person on IRC, but they do not respond, send them an email stating when you tried to reach them. Include your response to their email or a list of your availability for talking.
Solicit Responses
When you are sending an email that you are expecting the recipient to act on, a good practice is to solicit the response from them directly. A simple phrase such as “Jac, I’ll wait for your response to act” or “Please let me know what you are thinking on this” will generally suffice to give the reader notice that you are expecting a reply. The opposite is true as well – a statement like “I don’t expect a response here; rather, I just wanted you to hear my opinion” can make your recipient happy to oblige.
Do Reply
When an email is not responded to in some way or another, the sending party will have difficulty knowing whether it was received. Most emails require a response of some sort. Even if it is as simple as “Thank you” or “Done,” that reply will help close the matter fully for everyone involved
Follow up
If you are expecting a reply to an email, follow up on it if you never receive one. Email does fall through the cracks at times. It can remain undelivered, get lost in a pile of unread mail, or mis-sorted into other areas. An occasionally poke at the recipient after 4-5 days will generally be welcomed. If you continue to receive no reply, you will want to speak to that person’s superior. Do not let the lack of reply be your excuse for being inactive.
Reply privately (and/or to those already on the email thread
Situations escalate exponentially with each additional person involved. Email threads can become mob flame wars amazingly quickly, resulting in many bruised egos, ruined relationships, and possibly a visit by the friendly Chamber of Justice associate. If you are not sure about whom to send your message, ask your superior.
Focus your confrontations
Issues will come up when you are a leader in which you will have to send unpleasant emails to people. If you are bringing up an issue or responding to an email that does, be mindful of who you include on the email. People will respond with more candor when you email them directly rather than embarrassing them in front of their peers
Spam in moderation
Email is not IRC: one-word or one-sentence emails, regardless of how much fun you might be having, are very annoying to the rest of the email list. Reading thirty such emails turns people off from the email list, especially people unfamiliar with your unit.
Pontificate in moderation
People do not like one thousand-word emails. To keep your recipients from blocking you or lowering their incoming message size limits, summarize your email in three to four sentences at the beginning of your email (also known as an abstract). That way, people can know the gist of your email without reading it; they will still need to read the entire email if they want to know exactly what you said.
Do not set your emails to ‘URGENT’ unless absolutely necessary
Also known as “Do not cry ‘WOLF’”. Few situations in the DB warrant messages flagged as ‘urgent.’ Often, those situations are best handled on IRC. Email is not effective in must-act situations because it is non-synchronous. Instant messaging and chat rooms are. However, when the person is not on IRC and a reply is needed, marking a message as “urgent” is often a surefire way of having them come online. Make sure when you mark an email as urgent that you explain fully what the matter is and what action you are looking for. High level leaders know to drop what they are doing in the case of such a message; to someone like the Seneschal, for example, an urgent message means the database is down. Do not take use of this lightly, and do your best to communicate everything at once.
Do not continually change email addresses
This is as much a courtesy to your fellow members as it is to yourself. Besides the hassle of changing your official DB email address via the database’s form, your colleagues must also update their address books and GoogleGroups. Plus, if you omit to tell someone you changed your email address, you might miss important emails that were sent to your previous inbox. This is not to say that you should feel obligated to stay with the same email address forever. Just consider the effort required to transition to your new address before you. Once you do change your email address, refrain from sending emails out of the old one. Otherwise, you will cause confusion within the automated address books used by Gmail and other email providers.
Virus check
This is essential if you use a non-web-based email system, doubly so if you use Outlook. Check all incoming emails for viruses, and keep your email program updated and properly patched. Virus outbreaks have hit the DB before. Do not be the cause of the next outbreak.
Attach and explain attachments
We are all guilty of forgetting to attach attachments. Just double-check that you did include the file(s) you promised the receiver in your email. It is also a good practice to explain in your email what you have attached and why you have attached it.
Send a notice of recipient for emails with attachments
This is particularly important when running a competition. If someone sends you an email with an attachment, reply with at least a simple “File received. Thanks.” That informs the sender that you received their file. What you choose to do with that file thereafter is your prerogative. You may also choose to reply on IRC, etc.
Inform the recipient when your email is bounced back to you
Occasionally, email systems reject your emails. If this happens, check the address to which you sent the email; typos can send your email to other places quickly. If the address is correct, check the error message. Typical error messages include attached files are too large (your fault), inbox exceeds size limit (recipient's fault), unknown recipient (usually your fault: incorrect address), blocked (either and/or both). Ask around to see if others have had similar problems sending email to that person. Best of all, contact the recipient via IRC or AIM.
Avoid setting vacation auto-replies
As this is not a real life work environment where people outside your immediate organization are emailing you daily, there is little need for turning your vacation auto-reply function on. When you go on leave, an email to the Clan and House GoogleGroups lists will suffice.
Unsubscribe yourself, but do not berate others who forget
All GoogleGroups and Yahoo! Groups lists have easy unsubscribe functions—usually akin to replying to the group with the subject “Unsubscribe”—so use them. However, should someone not realize this and ask publicly to be removed, do not berate, admonish, or otherwise belittle the person publicly. You are not helping to solve the situation, you are being unnecessarily hostile and rude.
Do NOT ask people to reply privately if you send something to the Clan/House GoogleGroups
If you want people to reply to you privately, do NOT use the Clan/House GoogleGroup list. Invariably, someone will simply hit reply and privacy goes out the window. This applies to trivia competitions, polls, surveys, etc. Instead, create an email list and send an email directly to them (GoogleGroups is indirect as the email goes to GoogleGroups before being sent to the list members). Or better yet, create an online form that emails you and the participant.
Message board v. email
Message boards are very similar to email except that boards are public and email is not. People tend to write less when posting to a board than when emailing, and spam-esque posts are more accepted than spam-esque emails. Run-ons are easier to manage and read on a message board. Sometimes, people are reluctant to reply to email threads if they think a few people will dominate the discussion; this does not apply as much to message board discussions, which have typically smaller posts. Email is easier to reply to, more convenient (people check their email far more often than the message boards), and faster. In general, group discussions lend themselves to message boards, but be prepared to wait.
Organization: Methods to find and retrieve your messages quickly
Keep sent messages and as many received messages as possible
Unless you stamp your messages with gigantic signatures (which you should avoid anyway), retain a copy of all emails you send. Besides being useful for historical purposes, old sent messages are very handy at retrieving lost attachments, proving you said/did not say something, and checking if you really did send that message you thought you sent. Normally, you will receive far more emails than you will send; the higher your position in the DB, the more emails you will receive. Thus, it may not be feasible to save each and every message. Save as many emails as you can. Spam-esque emails (short, uninformative, chatty emails) and GoogleGroups emails (which are automatically saved by Google) can be deleted without deleterious consequences. If space is still needed, download attachments then delete the originating email (unless the email contains useful information). If you still require more inbox room, copy/paste the messages’ contents into a word processing document and save to your computer and/or unsubscribe from unnecessary GoogleGroups. Mail providers like Gmail will often give you sufficient space to store every message you have sent or received without trouble.
Flag messages
This refers to flags you put on emails you receive, not flags you put on messages you send (see the above section on ‘Urgent’ emails). Flagging important messages enables you to quickly locate important emails. It’s a nice feature when you wake up to three dozen emails everyday. If your email program does not have this functionality, you can mark the message as unread. That way, after you have made your first pass through your email, you can easily find the important ones. Different classifications of flags can be used to designate different things. Some email programs allow for multiple types in this fashion. For example, marking an email with a flag denoting “Needs reply” will remind you that you have to act on it. Marking an email with a flag denoting “Needs follow-up” will remind you that you are expecting a response to an email you sent. Check those flags often so you can be confident that all emails you are supposed to reply to have been, and that you have received.
Sort your mail regularly
Folders are your best friends in email. The DB is particularly well-suited to folders as there are distinct, (mostly) permanent groups from which emails originate. By sorting email into folders, you can follow email threads easier, locate important emails faster, track your members’ activity quickly, avoid constantly searching for old emails, and generally save yourself time in the long run. Some email programs, such as Yahoo!Mail, use filters to presort mail (e.g. “IF [From=”Jac”], MOVE_TO_FOLDER “GM”). If your email program has this functionality, use it as it will save you time and energy.
For example, you are in House Fedora of Clan Hat. You are thus on housefedora and clanhat GoogleGroups. In addition, you are running a Clan-wide competition entitled Operation HatSize, and you are a writer for the Dark Voice. You should have at least one folder for each different thing you are working on; in this example, you should have at least four: “House Fedora”, “Clan Hat”, “Op:HatSize”, and “DarkVoice”. However, this is a minimum as you might need more than one folder. Perhaps you want to separate submissions for the current Dark Voice from older issues, so you have “DV_Current” and “DV_Past” (or even “DV_vol2”, “DV_vol3”, etc.). If you have filters, you can save some time by directing all housefedora GoogleGroups emails to “House Fedora”, all clanhat GoogleGroups emails to “Clan Hat”, and so on.
Use an address book
Address books are quite handy even though all email addresses are listed in the database. Most email systems will auto-fill your 'TO' field when you start typing. Some use nicknames, which enable you to type in the person's casual name rather than their official DB name; “Sildrin” for Xia Long is a good example. Either way, using your address book will save you time. Just be sure you update your address book regularly.
Message: How to say what you mean, and mean what you say
Draft messages
This is similar to saving half-finished documents. Nobody likes typing the same twice. In addition, some of the most disastrous emails sent are written while angry. By drafting an email then waiting a few minutes, a few hours or even overnight, before continuing, you can save yourself and others much grief; a cool-off time, if you will. It doesn’t hurt either to gain advice on what to write in an email. Talking with someone on IRC on how to respond, especially to confrontations, will greatly reduce stress and heartache in the long run.
Be polite
This goes without saying, but since some fail to understand the point, this must be said. We are all members of the same organization. We all want the Brotherhood to thrive, and those in leadership positions are charged with seeing the Brotherhood achieve that goal. If we cannot be polite to each other and especially to those outside the organization, we cannot work together. If we cannot work together, we cannot achieve that goal. Learn to recognize when you are saying things that will be taken the wrong way – leadership evaluations and self evaluations can go a long way in helping you understand your tendencies. If you continually get into arguments with different people, it is a good idea to step back and look at what you are doing: maybe you are the culprit.
Use smileys
Some dislike using smileys because they seem informal. However, emails are astoundingly impersonal and abstract: unlike normal conversations where people can see your face and body language, readers have no context to the content of the message. Smileys personalize an email, set the proper tone, and remind the reader(s) that an actual person wrote the email. Compare:
- Listen up, kids. I’m gonna own you right here and now. Prepare for pain.
- Listen up, kids. I’m gonna own you right here and now :) Prepare for pain. :)
The first sentence sounds serious, threatening; the second sounds far less so, almost jovial. There is less ambiguity when smileys are used, more context and more personality. Smileys are also very important in showing when sarcasm is present. Sarcastic remarks are the hardest element to pick up on when reading emails, so a “:P” can go a long way to helping someone, especially just an acquaintance, know what you intend. Consider the following:
- You’re such a jerk.
- You’re such a jerk. :P
Include your ID line on your emails or, at the very least, sign your emails
This is easy if your email has a signature function. Signing your emails is vital in an organization where members turnover and change email addresses frequently. If you do not sign your emails, you could very well lose a competition because the judge could not determine who submitted the entry. Although important for new members who are not yet known to others, veteran members still need to mark their emails. If you notice, the most-recognized members—and thus those who do not necessarily need to sign their emails because everyone knows them—always sign their emails with either their name or idline. Most email programs have the ability to include a standard signature after each email.
Refrain from elaborate signatures
Signatures can get unwieldy quickly, especially in the Brotherhood where a person might hold several real and role play positions. For example,
- Dark Jedi Knight DePol Yil the Majestic (#1010)
- GC/SC-CoR/StA-WG/DC-LC
- (GNG)/(SN)/(BNG)/Cr-5D-2R-2A-6S-3E
- CF-B2F/LSB/DSS-QK/SoL-TC
- Battleteam Leader, Verbose Wordsmiths Battleteam
- House Member, House Servile
- Clan Member, Clan Obsequious
- Magistrate to the Master-at-Arms
- Family Patriarch, The Yils of Coruscant
- Holder of the GJW MVP
- Follower of the Krath Order
- www.depolyil.net
Some people have such cumbersome and gigantic signatures, and this is just simple text; add pictures and these signatures become mini-websites attached to emails. Idlines were devised to simplify identification, so please use them. Some flair is acceptable. Use the message board guidelines for signature size limits: Signatures must remain within acceptable limits and must not contain any offensive or distasteful images or text. Signatures may either contain 7 lines of regular-sized text, or one line of text and an image of a maximum size of 500x120 pixels (wxh). Signature images may not be larger in filesize than 150KB. Usage of dynamically generated (PHP-GD) signature images and avatars is allowed, but only if the image does not take too long to load. Thus, the above signature could be coalesced into:
- DJK DePol Yil the Majestic (Krath)/BTL-M:MAA/Servile of Obsequious
- GC/SC-CoR/StA-WG/DC-LC/(GNG)/(SN)/(BNG)/Cr-5D-2R-2A-6S-3E/CF-B2F/LSB/DSS-QK/SoL-TC (#1010)
- Family Patriarch, The Yils of Coruscant
- Holder of the GJW MVP
- www.depolyil.net
Now that is much better though some might still say it is a bit lengthy. Some prefer only their base idline and pin number.
Use graphics and HTML sparingly, if at all
Embedded graphics and HTML are annoying and make your emails quite large and cumbersome. If you choose to have a signature graphic, use the message board size limits.
Zip attachments
As a courtesy to others, zip your attachments if larger than 150Kb and/or if you are sending more than three attachments in a single email. Large files consume inbox space and are time-consuming to download. Downloading several files individually is time-consuming.
Use descriptive subjects
Descriptive subjects allow the receiver(s) to know what the content of your email is before they read it. This allows them to read your email first (i.e. “Promotion for JH Eveel”) or last (i.e. “Looking for anyone with a copy of X-Wing to download”). Ambiguous or misleading subjects slow down communication. Take the following example to heart:
- Subject: “Hey…we need to talk”
- Subject: “Please send me your IRC schedule so we can talk about a promotion.”
The first example will surely be taken as a negative: people will think they are in trouble at best. The second example, however, lets a person know clearly what is in store.
Tell a person what you want to talk about on IRC
People will ask each other through email to get on IRC for a chat. This is a fine and common practice. However, be courteous when making such a request by relating the subject of the conversation. An email stating “Please sign onto IRC. We need to talk…” does not bode as well as “Please sign onto IRC. We need to go over some names that are up for promotion.”
Proofread your emails before sending
Emails are a form of writing, and, like all forms of writing, they should be reviewed prior to public release. Emails need not have perfect spelling and grammar, but they do need to be understandable. And proofreading refers to all aspects of the message—tone, content, language, the recipients, the subject, even your email address.
Swear in moderation
Shocking. Swearing and vulgarity can be cathartic and expressive, but can also indicate a lack of knowledge of more descriptive adjectives. Although strongly discouraged—especially when email large groups—you can insert the occasional swear word. However, as a leader, the general rule of thumb is you should never, ever swear at a subordinate.
NO ALL CAPS
Using all capital letters is the internet equivalent of yelling. Further, it is difficult to read and annoying. Just like on IRC, do not use all caps.
Include the original message when replying
Do not concern yourself with size limits; simply include the original message so that any references to ideas previously brought up can be easily found. Gmail and Yahoo!Mail in the gigabytes, and even very long threads only reach barely objectionable size after twenty or so replies. If you feel your replies are too big, delete the signatures at the end of the email thread; ten signatures from three people on the same thread will not be missed.
Conclusion
These principles may seem obtuse and tiresome at first, but after you implement them for a while, you will see marked improvement in the quality of your emails and the comprehension of your recipients. And these guidelines can be applied to other areas of the Brotherhood. These email practices are great for business and personal communication. The brief writing tips above can be directly and easily applied to all areas of writing. Organization, be it of an inbox, a sock drawer, or your personal budget, is always handy. Email is a vital tool, and like any tool, you must know when and how to employ it in order to maximize its efficacy.