Module 2 - Lists

TASK: Think about the following questions -

What are the pros and cons of email lists versus discussion boards?
Are there cetain kinds of communication or purposes more suited to one than the other?

Wow, I was so overwhelmed!

I had never joined an “email list” prior to this course and decided to join a “truecrime” book group. Please note, that since starting study two years ago I have yet to have time to even finish a novel…but alas, I needed to join something that faintly resembles a glinch of my weird personality – true crime being part of that.

I had no trouble finding the yahoo group site and the process of signing up for a yahoo email account and then submitting an application to join the group was painless yet time consuming.

I was quite excited to consider myself an actual “groupie,” so I ventured into my new email account a few days later to see if my first message was received. Well low and behold not only had my message been received and responded to, I also had 1465 messages nicely listed in my inbox.

After browsing through the first 10 and feeling well and truly “over” the truecrime group I was lucky enough to find (for my sanity) a little box which you tick then hit delete and whaaalllllaaaaa – inbox empty.

My opinion of the email list is:

Pros

1. This form of communication may suit people who have time to check their inbox on a regular basis.
2. It is asynchronous which enables people to receive and post in any time zone.
3. No need to contribute to any discussions.

Cons

1. Depending on how popular the email list is you may find that you are inundated with emails, which becomes monotonous and time consuming.
2. If the list is not contributed to regularly then it can become boring.


I found that after perusing my first 10 emails, besides the actual welcome email I received, they seemed to have gone somewhere south of the “truecrime” topic. I found discussions on “what do I put on my lamb, I don’t like mint,” to a discussion about a lady’s son who is having financial problems.

The act of joining an email list may be a perfect introduction to a discussion board. As with the discussion board that we use in our internet studies I personally have similar pro’s and con’s except of course without the inbox bombardment.

If I had the choice I wouldn’t use either email lists or discussion boards, as I really don’t have the time. With that being said and considering the discussion board for our study requirements, I have found the discussion board with Curtin as being very user friendly and when searching for a specific topic I have been able to locate various opinions and lots of help.

Module 2 - Email tasks

I am not new to the Email world, as i have used it as my main form of communication with family and friends whom I do not see regularly, for many many years. I have a primary email account at home and also a secondary account: dream.haze@hotmail.com. I also have my work email address which we use to communicate in house and also with clients and other businesses. I also have some university email accounts which of course i use primarily for study purposes.

My work email address is used everyday and I have noticed that it is being used more each year by different businesses and also more government departments are using email to communicate with businesses. My work email address has large amounts of data moving in and out regularly and accordingly I have set up files and folders to split received emails into relevant order.

I took the email tutorial which i found interesting and very easy to read. I have addressed the task questions as follows:

1. What information about a user's email, the origin of a message, and the path it took, can you glean from an email message?

I use the email program Incredimail and when an email is received the first thing noticeable is the Senders name, this is made up two parts – the user name and also the domain name. eg. Tracy @ hotmail.com.au - tracey is the username, hotmail is the domain name.

The subject line briefly states what the email is regarding. The date the email is received in my inbox is also shown.

When the email is opened the email may show who the email was sent to as a CC and may also show where the email originated from. For example, curtin.edu.au tells us that it is the curtin university, as the edu stands for education, the au tells us that it is an Australian domain name.

If the email has a paperclip icon, this indicates whether there is an attached document.

2. In what cases would you find it useful to use the 'cc', 'bcc' and 'reply all' functions of email?

When typing an email or forwarding a received email I may wish to send it to more then one person. To enable me to do this I can send a ‘cc’ copy to someone. For instance, at work I may type a memo which I would like all staff members to read; I would type the managers name in the To: box and ‘cc’ it to other staff members, they can all be aware of who has received this memo.

If forwarding a document to many people who are not staff, I often use the ‘bcc’ option, as this option sends a ‘blind’ copy without anyone knowing.

3. In what ways can you ensure that an attachment you send will be easily opened by the receiver?

To ensure that the person receiving your attachment is able to open the document it is advisable to ensure that the recipient has the relevant software. If unsure what software the recipient has it is often more reliable to send the information in a format that can be read by many applications, such as RTF or ASCII.

If the attachment is large it is also a good idea to reduce the size of the file by compressing the information, this enables a quicker transfer time from yourself to the recipient. This is called zipping or archiving a file.

4.What sorts of filters or rules do you have set up, and for what purpose?

I have filters set up to redirect emails which are not sent by someone on my approved senders list. These are junk mail; which is unsolicited emails. The junk mail is directed to a file which I check on a daily basis to ensure that no well intended emails have inadvertently be directed there. This enables me to quickly view relevant emails quickly without having to sift through various unwanted emails.

I have also blocked email addresses by filtering the subject lines of the incoming emails, for instance anything with the word Viagra will automatically be directed to my deleted mail folder.

Using filters quickens my time spent reading email messages. I am able to focus on important emails only.

5. How have you organised the folder strucutre of your email and why?

I have different folders set up on different email accounts. My work email folders consist of a client folder, important messages folder and computer folder.

My home email has my inbox split into three folders, family, jokes and university as shown below




I believe that email is a major function of todays communciation system and will continue to grow in the future. I am considering spending more time perusing different filtering functions in different software programs in the future to enable quick sorting of my emails. My email mission is complete for the time being.