1995-09-28 - Re: Timothy C. May: Mini-mailbombs and Warning Letters

Header Data

From: patrick@Verity.COM (Patrick Horgan)
To: tjic@OpenMarket.com
Message Hash: 08dc0065f6a235b5edd85507dda8976be7b30637e2e20276ef4e5c15652dfa3f
Message ID: <9509280438.AA23997@cantina.verity.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1995-09-28 04:42:07 UTC
Raw Date: Wed, 27 Sep 95 21:42:07 PDT

Raw message

From: patrick@Verity.COM (Patrick Horgan)
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 95 21:42:07 PDT
To: tjic@OpenMarket.com
Subject: Re: Timothy C. May: Mini-mailbombs and Warning Letters
Message-ID: <9509280438.AA23997@cantina.verity.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> 
> 	but the key was not there.  Please mail me your key.  Thank you.
> 
> 
> If anyone has a constructive suggestion as to how this mail could be
> changed to convey more information or to be less "threatening", please
> mail me.
> 
Sure, I found the above offensive.  It comes across in exactly the same
tone as a cop saying, "Please step away from the car."  I know it's silly,
but sometimes Please just isn't enough.  The simple change:

      but the key was not there.  Could you please mail me your key?  Thanks.

works miracles:)  The tone on the rest of it was nice.  You have to be careful
with imperatives.  They usually sound mean...even with a please at the front.

Patrick
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