We often compare our Internet use at the newspaper to our first experience with the fax machine years ago. Everyone said we needed a fax at the newspaper, so we bought one, and it sat there. Finally we asked Jasper Drug Store, who also had one of those new machines, to send us something, so we’d know it worked.
Within months, we couldn’t load enough paper to catch all the faxes, including many that did nothing but waste paper.
When Ellijay Telephone Company first offered Internet service, we signed up, and for a long time, it was a novelty around here with little practical use. We had one account for the whole staff.
Today, most of what you read in the Progress arrives via e-mail as Postal-carried submissions steadily decline. Less than one in ten Progress stories arrive on paper. Our typist said she occasionally types something just to stay in practice.
Needless to say, we get a lot of e-mails at the Progress. And we miss a few. We don’t know where those end up. Nobody does.
It could be operator error, typing the wrong address, poor Internet connection or over-aggressive spam, but for whatever reason, not every e-mail sent to us arrives here. Almost all do.
It’s disappointing to us (and the sender) when a yard sale, church event or birthday notice becomes lost in the murky dead-ends of cyberspace. This happened last week. We were apologetic. We checked our trash cans, and the e-mail simply didn’t make it to us.
Considering real world packages get lost frequently enough that there is an option for shipping insurance, you can sort of understand how stuff simply disappears sometimes. We get an occasional e-mail intended for other newspapers named Progress or for a paper in Pickens, South Carolina or Ellijay, Georgia. In a rush to share news of their child’s birth or to inquire about a legal ad, someone clicks on the first name that looks familiar.
We’re still small enough here that if by accident you send to our newsroom an e-mail that needs to go to our want ads department, we can swap them around. [Note: if you’re sending something to the IRS, a chain hotel or companies with different locations, it’s important to make sure you not only have the right company, but the correct person.]
A constant challenge in e-mail communications is the flood of junk mail (spam). Trying to cull the good from the bad makes it too likely a busy person will delete something critical along with invitations to view dirty pictures.
The first thing you need to do when sending an important e-mail is to make sure the sucker got there. Look for verification. Send a second e-mail asking for confirmation, or use the old-fashioned telephone: “Hey, did you get that e-mail?”
At the Progress, we generally try to send a confirmation saying we have received news articles. And we encourage you to check for this confirmation. Just hitting “send” and forgetting about it is like dialing someone’s phone number, saying what’s on your mind and hanging up without waiting to see if the person picked up at the other end.
Another thing, if you send something to us, please make sure we know from whom it is arriving. If your e-mail is something like dawgfan@godawgs.com, and you don’t state your name somewhere in the message, how will we know who sent it? Also, when sorting through our junk-mail, it really helps if you make the subject line specific, like “News from the Joy House” or “Big event at Roper Park”. Lines like “hot news”, “please read” or a blank subject line are easier to mistake for junk mail.
Overall, the use of e-mail has greatly helped us communicate with our readers, but please feel free to give us an old-fashioned phone call if you feel the need. Our number is still 706-253-2457. |
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