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Gmail Adds 5 Second Send Rule

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the still-good-still-good dept.

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.

12 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. My Idea by potpie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:My Idea by Knuckles · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

      Gnome's Evolution optionally warns you if your email contains words like "attachment" (it also seems to apply other heuristics), but no attached file exists. Works surprisingly well.

      --
      "When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
  2. ooh baby... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
  3. Ooh baby... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
  4. Re:You don't get sober in 5 seconds! by noundi · · Score: 5, Funny

    12 hours? That seems a bit rough. The whole point is to maintain the perks of emailing, such as speed.

    But you're right, this won't stop your ex-girlfriend from drunk-calling me either...

    --
    I am the lawn!
  5. Re:That makes no sense by telchine · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!

  6. Re:Good Idea, but by Mushdot · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, but it's certainly enough time to stop the mail and add another 'FUCK YOU' to the end.

  7. Re:That makes no sense by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  8. Re:That makes no sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You mean Mail Goggles?

  9. I could use it by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  10. Re:That makes no sense by discord5 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  11. At least that would stop people who think that by CyberKnet · · Score: 5, Funny

    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