Who is Kim Siever?

I have been on the Internet for nine years. During this time I have seen a lot of people come online. We’ve gone to being the only ones in the family with Internet access to using the Internet to plan a family reunion. We’ve gone from no businesses in our city having a website to being able to purchase things in our city through a website.

With all this growth, there seems to be a trend among Internet users (new and old alike) to be lazy in their email usage. I present the following email etiquette to help make email easier to read for everyone. Follow these suggestions, and your email recipients will be happy.

Use a subject

One of the most important steps is making sure you use a subject. Not using a subject can decrease the chances of having your email read. Some people read last emails without subject headings. Since some spam do not contain subjects, many people automatically delete messages with no subjects.

Use a descriptive subject

Make sure the subject describes the message. Keep it brief, but make sure it is related to the content of the message. If the message is about the birth of a new baby, don’t have the subject say “Hello”. In addition, do not use the first few words of a sentence as your subject and then continue the sentence in the email. It is confusing for people who do not read email subjects.

Use the BCC field

If you have to forward something to several individuals that has the potential to be forwarded on by them, please make sure you use the BCC (Blind Carbon copy) field. This ensures their privacy because it hides their email addresses from each other. It also decreases the chance of spammers harvesting their email addresses.

Use punctuation and capitalization

Please be sure to use periods to end sentences and to capitalize the first letter of each sentence. At the very least, please do this. Emails that are all lowercase and have no punctuation are very difficult to read and take unnecessary amounts of time to decipher. As well, it would be nice if you used commas and the like where required. Whatever you do, do not use ellipses to replace all other forms of punctuation.

Check your spelling

Most email software has a spell checking feature. Please use it. Sloppy spelling is irritating and often confusing. It makes you look illiterate. Please do not use Internet slang in your emails (i.e. ur, lol, ppl, etc).

Use proper grammar

Please use proper grammar. It doesn’t need to be formal writing, but things should make sense. Using improper grammar confuses readers and often sends an unintended message.

Close with your name

Please make sure your message ends with your name. If it’s your first email to a person, you should use your first and last name. It is appropriate to use only your first name in emails to more familiar persons. It is simply a matter of courtesy to the sender to know who is sending them the message.

UPDATE (15 Nov 2005): For related posts, see Roger Johansson’s Stop sending annoying email and Merlin Mann’s Five email tics I’d love for you to lose.

Jakob Nielsen, well known for his usability advocacy, recently wrote a post called Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes. I think he’s off his rocker. I am disappointed in the article.

1. No Author Biographies

Okay, I agree with this one. I think a blog should have an author bio, but I don’t see how not having one makes the blog less usable.

2. No Author Photo

Could someone please explain to me how not providing a photo of yourself makes a blog less usable?

3. Nondescript Posting Titles

I agree with this to a point, but it’s a blog. Who cares? It doesn’t seem to be affecting Greg Storey‘s readership.

4. Links Don’t Say Where They Go

Most blog posts I’ve read that use techniques such as “there’s more here and here” provide context in the post itself. It is rarely an issue and hardly frequent enough to be warranted as being in the top ten.

5. Classic Hits are Buried

I’m not sure this is an issue of usability. Perhaps I am an anomaly, but I cannot recall ever going to a blog and asking myself, “Now, I wonder if they have a popular post on ColdFusion and Ajax“.

6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation

I agree with this one. At the very least someone should have a search box. This is a downside of some third-party hosted blogs.

7. Irregular Publishing Frequency

Oh please. Since when did blogs become a newspaper. Blogs are about posting what you want, when you want. If someone’s blogging solely to attract traffic, maybe s/he needs to rethink the purpose of a blog.

8. Mixing Topics

See above.

9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss

Agreed.

10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service

Who cares? It doesn’t matter. I have had several people comment that found my other blog to be authoritative and a premiere blog. People really don’t care where it’s located. It’s not a home-based business. Well, okay, maybe for some. But for those for whom it is, they have their own domain.

Overall, this post seems like he was trying way too hard. Oh well. Better luck next time.

Some of my readers are familiar with my post on GMail Folders that shows a workaround for the seemingly absent email folders that abound in other software.

I thought I would also post on how to create mailing lists (or mailing groups) in GMail. A mailing list is handy because you can specify a list in your message and the message will be sent to all the contacts in the group.

Create your mailing list or group

1. Open up each contact you want in the group and click “Edit contact information”.
2. Add the name of the group (e.g. “family”) in the “Notes” field and press “Save”.

Use your mailing list or group

1. Go to your Contacts page and search for the name of your group. This should bring up all those with the group name in their notes.
2. Click on the “All” link near the bottom of the page
3. Click the “Compose” button

Voilà! A new email with all the contacts in your group.

Most people take their current name for granted. These same people have probably never had their name changed. Many probably have assumed the same about my name: Kim Jason Joseph Benoit Siever. After all, if I, the holder of my name, can assume it, why shouldn’t others?

In reality, it’s not the case. While I may go by that name, legally it’s not my name. In fact, the earliest documentation I have of this name being recorded was when I was ordained an elder a month before my mission.

I first realised something was odd when I received my birth certificate in 1987 and saw that not only was “Benoit” not on it, but the other two middle names were in the other’s place.

Recently, I’ve been reviewing old documents and discovered that my name has gone through quite the roller coaster ride. Come share the ride.

That’s the inside front page of my baby book and it reads “Kim, Joe, Jason, Ben”. I am not sure of the date it was written, but it possible predates my baptism certificate (dated five days after my birth). If so, it is the earliest documentation I have for my name. The roller coaster starts there.

That’s from my Catholic baptism certificate. The baptism took place five days after I was born. Here my name is “Kim Joseph Jason Ben Siever”.

Here’s my birth certificate. It’s based on my baptismal certificate, and now every other legal identification is based off it. It reads “Kim Joseph Jason Siever”. For whatever reason, “Ben” was not included. My birth was registered the day after the baptism.

When I was five, my parents joined the Mormon church. I was blessed in the church nine months later. This is my blessing certificate and here my name is “Kim Jason Joseph Ben Siever”. This may be the first occurrence when “Jason” is put at the front, a precursor to my current name.

Within seven years, I took the last name of my step-father (who for all intents and purposes I consider my dad). I don’t recall when I started going by “Haysom”, but I believe I was around eight. Anyhow, that’s my deacon ordination certificate. I’m not sure where the “Benjamin” came from, but it’s the only occurrence I’ve seen of it.

Here’s my priest ordination certificate, where I am listed as “Kim Jason Joseph Ben Siever”. By the time I was sixteen, I needed to get a job. I couldn’t get a social insurance number under Haysom, since it was never legally changed. I started going by Siever again.

This is my certificate for when I was ordained an elder. I received it in October 1992, a month before my misison. It was the earliest official occurrence I have found where my name is as I use it now.

There you go. The roller coaster that is now my name. Legally, my name is Kim Joseph Jason Siever. That’s what’s on my birth certificate, my SIN, my driver’s license and so forth. Sometimes I bug Mary that we’re not even legally married since the name on our marriage certificate is different from that on my birth certificate.