Make email more valuable

Posted on: June 5, 2008

One of the most common problems facing people connected (to the Internet) today is an overabundance of email. Most of it isn't even asked for, let alone wanted. And even with spam filters in check, if you correspond frequently, chances are high you feel the pain of keeping your email tamed — face it, you'll never domesticate your inbox, so perhaps like a "BEWARE OF DOG" sign, what you need is a status indicator.

You know how traffic lights often have three colors (red, yellow, green)? I'd love to see an automated widget you can embed on a webpage, that would show how well you're doing with your email. It'd of course be able to "learn" and have customizable parameters, since not all messages are worth/weighted the same.

Too often, something "gets lost in communication" because the sender simply didn't know that the receiver had mounds and piles of e-letters to go through. Email is personal and is often obscured, so I have no clue how many messages are in your inbox — unless you tell me.

Wish there was a better way to stick a flag up. For extreme cases, you could even block incoming email with an autoresponder until your queue was freed up. Enterprising/innovative people might even find a way to make email a far more lucrative (and less vanilla) way of communicating, as in:

"On June 19 at 12:00 PM (GMT -08:00), I'll again be accepting incoming emails until I feel it's too much (or 100, whatever comes first). Then, the floodgates will be shut for another month! This is your chance to send me your thoughts, so don't hesitate, act now! The first four senders with exquisitely penned correspondence (no lameass Fwd: jokes plz) will win an iPhone.

How might making email more exclusive affect how we think about and use it? (And before you react, think about how Gmail and many other services use invites or another form of restrictive access to increase scarcity, and by association, perceived value.)

4 Responses to “Make email more valuable”

  1. AM Radio Says:
    June 6th, 2008 at 8:49 AM PDT

    A few ideas:

    Think of email as phone numbers. I have a work number, a home number and a cell number. I give these out carefully. I do the same with email addresses.

    Use three accounts. One for work, one for stupid things, like signing up for forums on the Internet or a contact form on your blog, and a third for friends.

    Don't give out your work email to anyone but coworkers and clients. If someone has addressed you at this email who shouldn't have, don't reply using that account. Reply using one of the other two email accounts.

    Your friends wouldn't give your home phone number to just anyone, why are you letting them do this with your email address? Ask your friends nicely not to use your third address for friends in the cc area on that email chain letter they insist on sending you and everyone else they know.

    Change the email address you use for friends every three months. Come on- it's not THAT big of a deal to change it. If you have information in your inbox that you can't lose, you're using the wrong storage system. POP is not a database for your online banking transaction confirmation numbers.

    Think of your third email address as a toothbrush. Change it out. Keep it clean and in good shape. Only those who you'd be willing to share spit with should use it.

    We are causing much of this email mayhem ourselves. Be kind to the email addresses in your address book in turn. Don't do anything to an email address you wouldn't do to your own.

    and Torley… speaking of email. I have been looking to contact you concerning the fact that I was so excited about the Creative Commons reuse/remix license on your music at Jamendo. I want to let you know I used it, with credit in a machinima. Thanks!

  2. kerunix Flan Says:
    June 6th, 2008 at 9:14 AM PDT

    i was going to suggest the same thing.

    I do the same thing with my SL alt account too.
    the public account.
    the privilegied contact account.
    the "call 911" account.
    and the strictly personnal "i'm not here" account.

  3. Alan Bamboo Says:
    June 6th, 2008 at 7:21 PM PDT

    I found out about windows live writer from you here on your blog a while back and like it.
    Anyways then I found
    http://get.live.com/wlmail/overview
    Windows live mail, it does a good job and you can "delete and block" people that send you email.

  4. Torley Says:
    June 8th, 2008 at 9:49 AM PDT

    @AM: I like the system you've come up with — I have several email addies (one used with my Resident alt account) and Gmail's ability to reply-to from different addresses is useful. Your "Be kind" reminds me of what Seth Godin wrote the other day:

    » http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/06/email-checklist.html

    You're totally welcome and thanks for using my piano music. What effects did you use on it? I caught it over @ NPIRL and it sounds more reverberant/echoey.

    @kerunix: That brings to mind: email is hardly *really* time-sensitive.

    @Alan: I like Windows Live Writer but am too fond of Gmail (you can mark unpleasant email as spam) at this point. I'll check it out closer tho, thx!

Make a Reply