Re: Fw: Out of Office AutoReply:

> I get regularly the following type of "out of office..."
>  most of the time I couldn't care less, but what is
>  this and why do we get them?

This is an example of a brain dead company buying brain dead software.
There is an awful lot of this going around.

The theory is nice, that there is no such thing as mailing lists & news 
groups & newsletters, the only thing that e-mail is used for is from one 
person to another person & the software is setup using that theory, which as 
we all know is a seriously flawed theory.

If the theory was valid, that the only e-mail we get is from other people 
associated with our business, then it is important to tell them that we out 
of office & that if you need immediate personnel dealing with your business 
contact here is who to contact instead, so the software is setup with the 
assumption that that is the only kind of e-mail you getting.

Thus ever person who posts anything to MIDRANGE_L or any other lists that 
have these people on them, will get one of these things, or in some cases, 
when I make a post to BPCS_L or E-COMMERCE or E-SECURITY or whatever list, I 
get half a dozen of these things, from diifferent participants on the list 
who have setup their software to auto reply to the original poster.

For a long time I railed against this - we need better software.
Then I read a review of this software in major PC magazines.
Apparently the software does recognize mailing lists & news groups & 
e-newsletters & etc, & has filters so you not telling spammers this 
information about you being a good e-mail address for more spam, which I am 
sure would give these people heart attacks if they realized they were doing 
that.
The problem is the competence of the people who install the software.

So when you get one of these things, the hidden message is
WE ARE AN INCOMPETENT COMPANY in computer terms - you better not do business 
with us because we don't know what we are doing.

There is probably a market here for some consultant to let them know how they 
are advertising this e-foot-in-mouth, and we consultant can fix this for you.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)


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