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from the should-I-reply-all-to-get-removed-from-the-list? dept.
Microsoft staff giggle beneath the weight of a 52,000-person Reply-All email storm:
Team Redmond stokes the flames as an exercise in black humor
[...] Microsoft is right now groaning under the weight of a 52,000-person internal Reply-All email storm.
The Register understands this one started with a new offer from Microsoft's internal store about discount software deals. While that offer was generous, it didn't apply to all Microsoft staff everywhere, which prompted an early Reply-All message asking why not. And then the snowball started rolling, and nothing could stop it.
We understand the mail went throughout Microsoft – enterprise, cloud and even Xbox folks found it in their inboxes.
Our Microsoft sources tell us staff are now hitting Reply All for the sheer fun of it, posting frivolous messages that celebrate the ridiculousness of the situation.
Laughter is the best medicine?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by ikanreed on Friday March 27 2020, @08:47PM (4 children)
Attach a permission to emailing more than N people at once. Grant it generously and take it away if you get this kind of problem.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MostCynical on Friday March 27 2020, @09:59PM (2 children)
at a government department at which I worked, only people at grade 6 or above (effectively, Managers) could send 'all staff' emails, and the all-staff and whole-of-department email groups were even more tightly controlled - you had to email a very senior department manager with the email body, and an explanation.
Unfortunately, the senior person's secretary did the actual sending, (no doubt after the senior person approved the printed version), and they usually sent the whole email (including the justification message)
Most people learned quickly to only send the secretary the body of the email, and walk up to explain why it needed to be sent to everyone..
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 2) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Friday March 27 2020, @10:07PM (1 child)
In my company, people think before hitting Send.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Saturday March 28 2020, @12:06AM
this was almost 25 years ago.. many of the staff still used mainframes to send letters and process payments, so PCs and email were very new.
Once people discovered they could make themselves 'pretty' signature blocks, the size of individual emails ballooned.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 28 2020, @03:15PM
This happens rarely because that permission exists. It was just somehow mis-configured for this specific mailing list.