I get lots of e-mail. And I don’t mean SPAM (which I get even more of). I mean real e-mail, stuff that I need to read and lots that I need to reply to. This includes mail from co-workers, product teams, sales folks, customers, partners, readers of my books, and lots of end-users. And mailing lists is a whole separate discussion.
I do read each and every message, eventually. And I do reply to every message that needs a reply, even if it does take some time to do so (the rate at which I work through my inbox is directly proportional to the number and length of flights in my schedule).
And I don't mind doing so. Really. It's a lot of work, and very time consuming, but it's an important part of what I do. I could not do what I do without e-mail.
But what I do mind is being forced to jump through hoops to reply to e-mails. I am talking about Spam Arrest and similar mail verification schemes. I used to run into these infrequently, but not anymore. I received 8 yesterday and 2 today (and only 2 were from the same person)! Those are annoying, especially when you reply to lots of mail offline (as I do) and end up getting the verification requests long after the message was written.
I understand wanting to control spam, I really do, but this is just a hassle. If I initiate a thread, ok, then I can see perhaps having to go to a registration page and doing whatever is requested. But if you use one of these systems, and are going to send e-mail messages to others (messages that expect a response), the least you can do is to pre-add the recipients to your filter. Really.
As for me, I just did something I have never done before. I deleted those verification requests instead of registering. Enough is enough.
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