Hi Keith;-)... Some of these have undesirable social relations consequences.
I have selected out some with unwanted effects that I know something about.
These come under the heading of "Be careful what you wish for! Might Get It!
At 21:40 -0500 2/1/04, Keith Moore wrote:
With those in mind, here's a stab at it:
- Users want to be able to read mail without seeing a significant amount
of spam. (to a recipient, "spam" is basically anything that the
recipient doesn't like that was sent by anyone except a person known
personally to the recpient)
This one needs careful review. It is not universally true. In particular,
I have often sent mail to Keith that he detested, but it was on the topic
under group discussion and was not spam.
- Users want to be able to recall messages that have been sent but
not yet read.
This one creates some interesting possibilities for causing friction among
colleagues. If you sent something to my USPS mailbox, and then came by my
house to retrieve it from my mailbox before I removed it, and then make an
issue of it sometime later, I think I would have grounds to claim you stole
it from my mailbox. So, that a minimum, I as recipient must have a way to
block such theft. My rule is that when you send something to me in the mail,
it belongs to me, and to no one else. I believe that legally the USPS rule
is that as soon as it falls into the corner mail pickup box, it belongs to
the recipient, not to the sender. This one needs further investigation.
- Users want to be able to send messages that will be disappear
if not read before some interval (expiration)
This one opens doors to some nasty tricks, like using it to find out without
detection that someone is not in his office when expected to be there, without
any further investigation.
Additional Note: I once worked with an X.400 software outfit, where the
director of development bragged to me about how he sent a message to each
of his employees before daily start time, and watched what time they opened it.
He did not inform them of his tricky management practice.
My preference is, if you want a damn time clock, then buy one and install it,
and openly require its use by your employees. -- Just one of my little
hang-ups!
I do not suffer tricky managers easily;-)... I am sure others of us exist!
Cheers...\Stef