Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

Atheist · May 18, 2011, 09:07 AM

As the main tech guy / programmer / analyst at my company (i.e. the guy they keep in the basement... or in my case 2000 miles away on an island), I frequently get involved in email threads after they have begun. By then, there are 8-12 people already cc'd. What prompted this post was a recent fiasco that involved users and tech staff in 4 different countries. After weeks of back-and-forth, the issue was resolved. I received an email with a final confirmation and details from one of the tech guys in India. I feel I need to respond to his email to say thanks for his help and to acknowledge the issue has been resolved on both ends.

My question then? Do I just hit reply all and include a bunch of people that really don't need (and I'm sure don't care) to see this email? Or do I just reply to him? Bear in mind, by now the emails have gotten very technical and many of the people in this email thread are users who don't understand a thing we are talking about. My gut reaction is to just reply to him and cc my boss.

ghporter · May 18, 2011, 09:42 AM

It's gotta be "pick and choose." I try to respond to the individuals whose contributions I am commenting on, though sometimes I either include others because of their earlier inputs, or because it seems appropriate to them and their interests. I almost never "reply to all," unless I really think it's appropriate to everybody who is already part of the discussion.

Yeah, I kind of over analyze this stuff...

SpaceMonkey · May 18, 2011, 09:50 AM

I default reply-all unless there is a reason to remove someone. Atheist's reasoning would be sufficient for me.

mattyb · May 18, 2011, 10:14 AM

CYA with a reply-all - and that means reply all to EVERYONE who was ever in on the emails.

A nice large attachment of a very pretty PowerPoint or Excel with useless graphs always helps.

Atheist · May 18, 2011, 10:20 AM

Originally Posted by ghporter

It's gotta be "pick and choose." I try to respond to the individuals whose contributions I am commenting on, though sometimes I either include others because of their earlier inputs, or because it seems appropriate to them and their interests. I almost never "reply to all," unless I really think it's appropriate to everybody who is already part of the discussion.

Yeah, I kind of over analyze this stuff...

In many cases, I don't even know who half the people are in the emails so it's hard for me to figure out what their interests are.

Doofy · May 18, 2011, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by Atheist

My question then? Do I just hit reply all and include a bunch of people that really don't need (and I'm sure don't care) to see this email? Or do I just reply to him? Bear in mind, by now the emails have gotten very technical and many of the people in this email thread are users who don't understand a thing we are talking about. My gut reaction is to just reply to him and cc my boss.

Get on a plane to India and go shag his wife. It's the custom there that that's the best way of thanking people. It'd be impolite not to.

Atheist · May 18, 2011, 10:31 AM

Originally Posted by Doofy

Get on a plane to India and go shag his wife. It's the custom there that that's the best way of thanking people. It'd be impolite not to.

You forget... I play for the other team.... and I'm partnered.... no random shags for me. But thanks for the input. Was unaware of this particular Indian custom.

Doofy · May 18, 2011, 10:33 AM

Originally Posted by Atheist

You forget... I play for the other team....

No I didn't.

Originally Posted by Atheist

and I'm partnered.... no random shags for me.

You fail in your job if you won't thank this man properly!
I picked option 2, BTW.

andi*pandi · May 18, 2011, 10:40 AM

I try to be kind to people's inboxes and only copy those I think would care to know. In this case, I'd copy your boss and his boss so they know that a) the problem is resolved, and b) everyone did a good job yay-ammunition-for-review-time.

Although sometimes it is political and you should include the world. This scenario is usually when escalating a problem, annoying as that tactic is, it works.

-Q- · May 18, 2011, 11:07 AM

I'd pick and choose who to respond to and if you can, include those that seemed to escalate the issue or have some sort of "stakeholder" presence in the problem and its resolution. That way not only are the bosses notified, but your department is shown as responsive to the issues.

ghporter · May 18, 2011, 01:01 PM

Originally Posted by Atheist

In many cases, I don't even know who half the people are in the emails so it's hard for me to figure out what their interests are.

So I'd just reply directly to the one person. I also like the "CC my boss" bit. It shows you're serious about what you're saying, and that someone else is watching the issue.

Athens · May 18, 2011, 01:25 PM

For a thank you everything resolved email I would pick them all. If it was just stuff related to only a few people like more questions about the project, I would pick and choose.

Nivag · May 23, 2011, 05:49 PM

Another pick and choose here. A good techie doesn't want to overload the mail server

brassplayersrock² · May 23, 2011, 07:21 PM

Pick and choose. Pick out the ones that made the most mess, and thank the ones that helped clean it up.

calverson · May 25, 2011, 01:12 AM

CC when can be trollworthy/offensive/boastful/give you man-points and then send another one saying "oops" and justify your email saying you didn't mean it.

Pretty much standard practice for me.