Slashdot Mirror
Gmail Adds 5 Second Send Rule
theatrecade was one of a few folks to note that Google Labs has added the
five-second rule to email. Once upon a time this rule only applied to delicious foodstuffs dropped on the floor, but at long last you can change your mind on that email to your boss or ex. We shall see peace in our lifetimes.
I understand the rationale on this but the hold time needs to be much longer...like 12 hours for it to be effective.
Or it should be combined with the beer goggles add-on.
Either way, this won't stop my ex-girlfriend from drunk-calling me...
We don't live in Shouldland.
My idea for preventing the submission of blank e-mails or e-mails lacking that attachment you were going to remember:
put the recipient address field below the message field
would that be helpful for anyone besides me? y/n
Esoteric reference.
Some people can barely react in that time. Although I can appreciate that a pop-up should not last longer, would a settable delay of 1-10 minutes really kill the medium? Perhaps with a "Send now" option on pending emails for urgent communication.
They've also had a Mail Goggles feature for a while. It makes you do some simple math problem to determine if you're sober enough to send the email. This might be useful for those who drunk mail now instead of drunk dial. http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-stop-sending-mail-you-later.html
a/s/l?
I want you to tweak my nipples with a grapefruit spoon.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
Oops, wrong channel.
Dammit. When is slashdot going to implement the five second rule?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I use Thunderbird, which has an "are you sure you want to send?" confirmation by default. Since I use the ctrl-return hot key to send, I usually just blast through this message so at one stage, I switched it off.
However, I found that in the half second between pressing ctrl-return and return to confirm, my brain was actually doing some checking to make sure I should send that message.
I sent a reply to a whole message board asking for more information about a job - not a disaster, but not what I had intended. I realised almost as soon as I had hit the button, but I'd switched off the confirmation by this point. I rapidly switched it back on. Since then, I've noticed quite a few occasions on which I've hit ctrl-return and then realised I should tweak my message in some way before I send it.
In conclusion: 5 seconds may not seem like a lot, but it could make all the difference.
I used to work for a company where The Managing Director frequently used to send (usually offensive) emails to the wrong people by accident. His usual error was to insult someone behind their back and accidentally include them in the cc field!
Whenever this happened, he used to come hurtling down the stairs and rip out the Ethernet cable from the mail server in an attempt to stop the mail going out!
At first I thought he was trying to outrun the electron charge as it traversed through the network cabling, but it turns out that at some point in the past, someone had reconfigured the mail server to delay all mail by 30 seconds, just so he had time to rip out the Ethernet cable in an emergency!
No, but it's certainly enough time to stop the mail and add another 'FUCK YOU' to the end.
There are other reasons why you'd want to recall a message sent to your boss.
Say, you forgot to attach the required document. Or you realized you made a typo in dollar amount. Or you forgot to copy someone important on the message (and because of CYA or whatever, your boss needs to see that you cc:ed the person).
At least once a month I send an email I wish I could recall, because I would have liked to have made a small change... and instead I end up sending a followup email, which is just unwieldy and annoying.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
It happens more often than you think. I've had plenty of times when I've clicked send and almost instantaneously realized I had a mistake in the email. This will save me from having to immediately reply to my own email to make that correction, thus looking like a fool (I have plenty of other ways to make myself look like a fool, thank you very much).
Now, if they could just add a feature that held any emails sent after 2am for 12 hours, aka the "sober up first" rule, thus preventing me from waking up after a bender thinking, "oh crap, did I really send that email confessing my true feelings to that girl I had a crush on in high school but hadn't talked to in 15 years?", life would be just great.
A popup. How lame, lazy, and dangerous: (I realize it's an optional setting)
- First, it's NOT undo... this is a delay tactic. A real undo would have the system hold the mail in your "outbox" for a user customizable time, from where you can snatch it, but only when you need to.
- Second, you now have to wait, EVERY time you send an email. Because "email regret" happens only now and then, it's likely to get turned off. Back to square one.
- Third, if there ever was a "Send now" button, you'll get so customized to pressing it, that you're again back to square one.
I appreciate the effort, but this gets an F. Please, head back to the labs, make something really sensible (i.e. not lame), and try again.
Are you sure?
Whenever this happened, he used to come hurtling down the stairs and rip out the Ethernet cable from the mail server in an attempt to stop the mail going out!
At first I thought he was trying to outrun the electron charge as it traversed through the network cabling, but it turns out that at some point in the past, someone had reconfigured the mail server to delay all mail by 30 seconds, just so he had time to rip out the Ethernet cable in an emergency!
It occurs to me that if you laid the Ethernet cable for the mail server across those stairs you could allow him to accomplish his goal of preventing the mail from going out while providing endless amounts of humor for the rest of the office ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
This sounds inherently stupid. How many people send an e-mail, just to think: "oh no!" 2 - 4 seconds later.
A lot. I've had this happen. It happens no /. to.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
You mean Mail Goggles?
The other day I felt so generous that I sent an email telling someone that I would pay 2,000, 000, million billion US dollars to anyone who would help me get my dead father's money out of Nigeria.
A second later I thought "you know I could just keep the money myself", but it was too late. Keep looking, you might be the lucky one getting my email.
Another solution is to always sit back and read through the entire message (and recipient list) before hitting send.
I mean that quite literally. Remove hands from keyboard, sit back and just read.
That habit has saved me a lot of trouble in the past.
did I really send that email confessing my true feelings to that girl I had a crush on in high school but hadn't talked to in 15 years?"
Yes, you did. Now cut it out before I get a restraining order ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Really guys? You're linking to the CNN article instead of the official gmail blog's article? What, Al Jazeera didn't have an article up for this, too?
http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/new-in-labs-undo-send.html
The setting in question can be changed to 0, 5 or 10 seconds, but defaults to 5 if you turn the feature on. See your Labs area in GMail for more details
This sounds inherently stupid. How many people send an e-mail, just to think: "oh no!" 2 - 4 seconds later.
You have fallen victim to marketing hype.
What this "feature" does is place your sendmail into a pending outbound que, which has limited size. Thus, its primary effect is to restrict your ability to spam/flood email out of the gmail servers.
The 'undo send' option is just for show.
I thought Slashdot already had an article on this feature. It's called Mail Goggles. It won't stop you from sending the email, but it may slow you down.
Unfortunately, I have a Masters Degree in Drunken Calculus, so that feature won't help me :(
That reminds me of a company I used to work for. A woman there, usually very kind and agreeable, was fed up with one of her contacts feeding her a lot of excuses why he wasn't able to make a deadline for the 3rd time. She thought she forwarded a nice e-mail to her manager containing some very choice words expressing her opinion that matter.
Oh how quickly that send button was smashed without carefully verifying who was in the To field, only to discover that instead of forward she had pressed reply to all. When the deed was done and the mailserver had delivered her incredibly inflammatory experiment in vocabulary she stood at my desk nearly in tears asking me if I could stop her mail from reaching its destination.
Alas, it had reached its destination, and there was nothing to do but push the "retract message" button in Outlook, which is about as useful as the mail that usually precedes it.
Surprisingly though, that person never missed a deadline again.
My old mail server was setup to queue mail from 9 PM to 8 AM. This was to prevent me from emailing after drinking at the bar.
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
A lot. I've had this happen. It happens no /. to.
Like the times when one typos a two letter word.
Your ad here.
There is no such condition as "decision anxiety".
You must choose either Cognitive dissonance OR Multipotentiality
I personally added a "Delay Sending by One Minute" rule into Outlook at work. It saves me a lot of embarassment when I hit send without adding my attachments (happens a lot). I wouldn't mind a similar gmail holding pen.
We use Outlook/Exchange. It had a message recall button, but the function wasn't enabled. Which meant about once a week you could see a message with a followup THAT ASKED THE READER if the previous message could be recalled. Even if you said yes (after reading the mistaken message of course) the bad message did not disappear.
This worked great a flag for screwed up mail to be read first. Thanks Microsoft!
Behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, and let us slay him... and we shall see what will become of his dreams.
Drunken Calculus...wasn't that a Jackie Chan movie?
How many people send an e-mail, just to think: "oh no!" 2 - 4 seconds later.
Sometimes when I want to type an "A" I end up hitting TAB (french keyboard). If I'm at the end of a word, and I'm not paying attention to what's on screen, I'll hit space while the focus is on the "Send" button, and the email will be sent.
waht button/?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
That's not a terrible idea. There have been a number of times that I've sent an email with the body of text saying "here's the report you asked for" and forgot to attach it. which made me feel like an idiot.
You can avoid that from happening ever again. And it's very simple:
Before you write any sentence mentioning an attachment, attach the file first.
Same goes for important mail. When writing a job application, finish the email first, then add the recipient address last.
I lost my sig.
I primarily use Thunderbird for work email. There is an option to confirm before sending (much in the manner of Vista's UAC "Are you sure?" windows) that most people disable. I leave it enabled and find myself saying "no, I'm not sure" at least once per week.
"I either want less corruption, or more chance
to participate in it." -- Ashleigh Brilliant
Whenever I replies to/writes a sensitive or important email, I clear the To/Cc fields, completely, and only add the addresses just before I'm sending. ... This, of course, should be after I've proofread it several times, and preferable waited a day :-)
Works in all email clients!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Rule number one of electronic communication: never send any while angry. Always calm down first.
How many times did you come running into work in your boxers with a major hangover at 7:59am screaming UNPLUG THE MAIL SERVER! UNPLUG THE MAIL SERVER!?
"Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject to diminishing returns" -Journal of Political Econom
You seem to be writing an inflammatory email. Should I help make sure it doesn't go to your boss?
Or
You seem to be writing a drunken email to your ex-girlfriend. Are you sure you want to do this?
Unfortunately, I have a Masters Degree in Drunken Calculus, so that feature won't help me :(
Yes. As long as you know not to mix drinking and deriving.
<ducks>
Practice Kind Randomness and Beautiful Acts of Nonsense.
Outbound qué?
-dZ.
Carol vs. Ghost
it is cool to start a thought in the subject field, and finish it in the body field.
Good grief how I hate that. It can completely change the meaning of a post.
Video meliora proboque deteriora sequor - Ovidius
We're going in so many tangents we may as well be a derivative.
Eudora and Thunderbird have had this for some time. Probably Outlook too, not like I touch that thing.
Alas, it had reached its destination, and there was nothing to do but push the "retract message" button in Outlook, which is about as useful as the mail that usually precedes it.
The option to retract messages as implemented in Outlook isn't a bad idea, really, but I still hate it for the false impression it creates. I've seen it happen enough that some user becomes familiar with the feature and then comes under the impression that it actually allows them to rescind email messages at will, regardless of the circumstances. I've even had a couple users get angry with me-- as though I had the email server configured incorrectly-- because, after having sent the message over the Internet to some random person, the "Recall this message" feature didn't actually prevent the recipient from reading it.