[Baypiggies] Challenge/Response email systems

[Anna Ravenscroft]

On 6/16/06, Marilyn Davis <marilyn at deliberate.com> wrote:
> I'm going to trim a lot out of these messages.  I hope no one feels I've left out any important context.  It is not my intention.

> The sender is irritated because she didn't answer the challenge and the mail was important to her?  Well, that person is very irritable indeed and maybe I'm better off without having her in my email.
>
> I'll confess I'm a little confused about the usefulness of this analysis.

With a high volume of email, the "challenge" will get lost in it (or
worse, caught by a spam filter) and I won't *realise* that I need to
respond. I've had a number of instances where I saw the challenge
basically "by accident", or found it much later after wondering why I
never got a response.

> However, if Guido really needed me, to teach a class tomorrow night, to fill in for someone, or something, would he stand on his principle if I could solve a problem for him?  If so, I wouldn't know.  It would be his loss.

If I *needed to reach you*; I very well may have left my phone number
for you to contact me on my way out of work (for example) and again,
wonder why I got no response, until the next day, at which point,
instead of the hoped-for answer, I have to respond to a challenge
which delays the whole process. I find that a wee bit frustrating, the
times I've encountered it. Or worse, I've emailed the person from one
eddress and expect it to get through because I've already answered a
challenge, but the latest email is from a different eddress (home vs
work) and doesn't get through (which has also happened to me.) Again,
frustrating. So, in my case, it wouldn't be a stand on principle, it
would be a matter of the C/R system delaying the communication,
possibly until too late.

Lastly, on a less "practical" plane and more emotional one: my
emotional reading of it as a signal is - "oh, this person wants to be
left alone. Okay, I won't bother them anymore. " and avoid emailing
the person in the future. This may not be the person's intent (and may
or may not be a common reading), but it's something users of C/R
systems may want to be aware of.

-- 
cordially,
Anna
--
It is fate, but call it Italy if it pleases you, Vicar!