This gem of a post recently popped up in my Techmeme/TechCrunch RSS feed. its Michael Arrington lamenting the hassle/aggravation/frustration of having to deal with a daily onslaught of thousands of emails.
Michael, I feel your pain. Making my email readily available seemed like a really smart thing to do when I first bought the Mavs in 2000. In hindsight, it was a huge mistake. Now of the thousand plus emails I get in a day, a hundred may be of the "You Suck" variety. Another 100 or so are of the "I want " variety. I would say that less than 20pct of the emails I get in any given day are truly of any interest and value to me and 99pct of those are from employees.
The good news is that I have a filter system setup so that I can push emails from people I already know or do business with into folders that I know are of relative importance.
Yet, I still trudge through the emails from the sports people who want to rant for the sake of ranting, giving them the shortest of glances, just in case they truly are a customer of the Mavs with a valid issue. I still glance at the "I want" emails, just in case there is something of truly redeeming value.
Unfortunately, there is one element of email that I have been forced to give up on. I have emails going back to the 1980s. Starting in about 1994, I have as many emails as I have been able to save as possible, up until about 12 months ago.
I had always wanted to keep each and every email I ever got figuring that it would be a history of my life that my kids and their kids could look back at just as I loved to look at old postcards, letters and pictures of my parents and grandparents. I kept as much as I could. I would estimate that I am well past 1mm emails in aggregate to date.
But as people got broadband, they started sending bigger and bigger attachments. So the attachments were the first thing to go. Then as people added mobile email, the volume exploded. Everything became email worthy. Which took my email files to sizes they have never been before. In fact, the biggest hassle in dealing with all of this is the 4gbs limit to copying files in Windows platforms. Zipping works, most of the time, but not all and the not all times make it not worth risking
So I started breaking them into smaller and smaller files, which just made things harder to manage and find. Even with indexing software out there.
And as far as moving everything over to my mac ? Entourage ? Setting up rules in Entourage or any mac mail i have tried takes an eternity. Try recreating more than 1k rules. Even trying to set them up as they come in hinders my productivity to an unacceptable level. So now I survive with my Windows Mail Server Box and my laptops taking in only current email.
So Michael, I feel your pain. The idea of living "The Email Life" worked so well for so long. Now, each day I say goodbye to my little email friends, I feel like Im cheating the future.
So now I just keep what I need to keep. HDNet, Mavs, 2929 stuff that I need to have available for reference.
Its kind of disapp
2,433 Unread Emails, I feel your pain..
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. Mark, I am one of the guys that emails you and I on a personal level am greatful for your open forum and your email. Through the years I have only a couple replies from you to me but those few times meant quite a bit. Keep doing what your doing. You are quietly making a difference in some peoples lives! Thx
Posted at 2:04AM on Mar 24th 2008 by David
3. *sends Mark a "You suck" email....
Posted at 4:09AM on Mar 24th 2008 by Calvin
4. Mark, I emailed you once and you replied within a couple of hours, answering once question and forwarding the other to one of your employees who took care of the rest. It was much appreciated.
Have you checked out any email organization software like Xobni or ClearContext?
Posted at 4:46AM on Mar 24th 2008 by Evan
5. I also get a ton of unwanted emails. The best way to sort thru those is with the delete button.
Posted at 6:38AM on Mar 24th 2008 by Homebizseo
6. Mark, I just emailed you for the first time about a philanthropy idea that involves athletes. I pray you read it ASAP and let me know what I need to do next. PLEASE DON'T MAKE IT THE 2,434th UNREAD EMAIL!!
Posted at 6:50AM on Mar 24th 2008 by Jon Ballard
7. I get about 15 e-mails a day per account. I have 3 different e-mail addresses with the same name and all of them are sent to different folders in my e-mail software. I know one is from people I know, 1 from websites I sign up on, and the rest is pretty much junk, but I keep it because before the big boom of the internet it is the address I gave to all of my old friends from the Army and high school. That is my solution. Even though it is really minimal.
Posted at 7:31AM on Mar 24th 2008 by Jeff
8. while I understand why you did not read those emails,ideas could come from those emails and maybe in your old age,read them and maybe enjoy the comments and opinions of other people good or bad. life moves on.
Posted at 9:16AM on Mar 24th 2008 by leonarda elliott
9. Mark,
I have sent you several emails and received replies to most of those emails and I must say THANK YOU for taking the time out of your busy schedule to not only read but also respond to emails. IMHO it just show what kind of human being you are to just open your email up for anyone and everyone to email you about everything under the sun. Try emailing your favorite movie star or your favorite music artist - unless you are willing to pay them a yearly fee to do so good luck - BUT you advertise your email and let anyone send you emails and not only that but, from personal experience, I know that you also go beyond just reading emails and responding to emails - so all in all I would like to say that I have a lot of respect and admiration for what you do and to also say THANK YOU for your valuable time in responding to my emails and all that you have done!!
James
10. I have the same problem, but not quite on the same scale. Have you considered a confidential email address? You could keep the current one for fans to contact you, but the new one would bee strictly for internal purposes.
Posted at 10:11AM on Mar 24th 2008 by James Wallace
11. I agree with David above. I have sent you a few emails over the years, and you have responded. This actually means quite a bit to people and I actually reference the story. People react to this type of behavior positively, as it is implied you get millions of emails, and view things differently.
I know personally I saw your world through a different lens once you replied to my email, and that will not change.
It is important to keep a constant line of communication with "all levels" so that raw messaging is not filtered all the time.
12. If it were me I would just delete them all. If something important was required from me get got tossed than a followup email or a phone call would eventually come.
I do hear your point though. Email is becoming a giant time suck unfortunately.
Posted at 10:42AM on Mar 24th 2008 by Dexter Mahoney
13. I too am one that sends you a personal note from time to time. To my amazement you've answered them. I thoroughly enjoy your rantings and you commitment to stay "in touch & connected". Good on you.
Posted at 10:54AM on Mar 24th 2008 by Nathan
14. Mark,
I once emailed you an idea about how to get more people to go out to the movies. This was in reply to your request for these ideas. I never got an email back.
Thanks for at least inspiring me to think.
Go Bulls!
Posted at 11:37AM on Mar 24th 2008 by Eric Weiler
15. I SO enjoy your posts, Mark.
..... And your e-mail was "what" again??
Posted at 12:13PM on Mar 24th 2008 by C Hansen
16. Loved the comments and the honesty about e-mails and blogging. I have personally almost thrown up my hands at the volume (and I use gmail as a back-up to be certain I do not miss any e-mails that somehow become lost in cyberspace). Like you I truly thought that archiving these nuggets would be somehow beneficial. Now I am saving only those business necessities, saving the video attachments worth keeping, and notes from friends that make me smile.
Have a great day.
Posted at 12:23PM on Mar 24th 2008 by Kathy Howe
17. Yet you still get excited to look at your emails because you never know what you're gonna get. Only 99% of the time you know what you're gonna get. :)
Posted at 1:15PM on Mar 24th 2008 by Brant Tedeschi
18. I am along the same lines as you -- I keep all of my emails as well, or at least try to. When I was a history major during college, we often lamented what the digital age would mean to our future work...as more and more work becomes digital, it becomes less and less permanent, thanks to either the storage medium (CD-Rs ain't nearly as good as Mesopotamian clay tablets) or the pressures of the data owner to purge their collection during space crunches. Do what you can to keep your emails, within reason of course!
19. DUDE, GET GMAIL....UNLIMITED SPACE, YOU NEVER HAVE TO ERASE ANY EMAILS.
Posted at 1:50PM on Mar 24th 2008 by Eric
20. I feel your pain. BTW, Entourage is the worst mail client I have ever had to use =( Being in an Exchange office on a Mac seems to suck. Go MSFT
Posted at 2:09PM on Mar 24th 2008 by Dan
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1. thats a lot of emails...
Posted at 1:40AM on Mar 24th 2008 by Brent