In the organisation where I work, it appears that (for a given subset at least), we have a Directly Measurable Idiot Factor of roughly 1%. It goes without saying, if you know me at all, that this is better than I expected.
"Idiot" is here defined as the kind of person who hits reply-all when a routine but esoteric administrative request has been accidentally sent to a mailing list 9,187 names long.
Bear in mind that the last idiot to send a reply-all stating "this is not for me" had already had the opportunity to read all of the other 86 replies, plus the original. In the table below, I have not been able to show this deepening of idiocy over time. To protect the guilty, I have not recorded his name. Except in my personal records.
Total number of individuals on mailing list used in error: 9,187.
Total number of reply-all messages received in my inbox: 87.
Idiots to Total: 0.95%.
| An attempt to classify the messages: | Count | Description of classification |
| Friendly / baffled / neutral / mildly annoyed idiocy | 49 | "Sorry,this request is not for me, I think you have made a mistake ...", "Please remove me from this list", "I am not too sure why I have received this email" ...including blank emails repeating these types |
| Recursive idiocy | 25 | "I'm replying all to say PLEASE STOP replying all!" |
| Angry idiocy | 1 | PLEASE USE CORRECT EMAIL (other individual's email) |
| Clueless idiocy | 1 | "I think someone may have a virus!" |
| Constructive idiocy | 2 | "I can do this if you tell me how", "I have forwarded this to ..." |
| Attempts at amends for idiocy | 3 | Recall messages |
| Apologies for idiocy | 1 | From sender of original message |
| Opportunistic attention-seeking - basic | 4 | Attempted joke, irony, contentless wind-up responses to other idiocy |
| Opportunistic attention-seeking - advanced | 1 | Joke is funny |
| Total | 87 |
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5 comments:
I think I would fall into "Opportunistic attention-seeking - basic" therefore I am an idiot.
Brilliant :)
@Random Cyclist - hahaha - I don't don't know, I think you might have managed the Advanced.
I liked this so much, I had to send an email to all my staff at work about it.
@Rich - Muppets go viral!
did anyone find the cat?
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