please remove me from your distribution list?

Wow, I feel awful. It's not my fault that I'm in this situation, either. See, I was added to the distribution list of someone who didn't ask my permission. Honestly, that doesn't offend me. Sure, it violates the "you shouldn't do that with e-mail" principle, but it's not a terribly big deal. But I'd like to unsubscribe, just because I get volumes of e-mail from friends and family that keep me occupied quite well. As a result, I wind up deleting almost every e-mail from the distribution list I'm talking about; not because I dislike the person or their efforts, but I suppose I'm obsessive about my inbox and would simply prefer that those mails not show up.

The problem is, this person's e-mails are Christ-centered, grammatically correct, non-offensive, and for an amazingly good cause. The other problem is that there is no "unsubscribe" link because it's a manual e-mail list that a real, live person is maintaining. This means that in order to unsubscribe I'm going to have to e-mail an individual whose work and ministry I respect and essentially say, "Hey, man. I really think what you're doing is splendid, but I don't want to hear about it anymore -- leave me and my inbox alone."

In the long run, this person needs to stop adding people to the list without permission, because frankly, when we violate the protocols of chivalrous e-mail sending, we're going to get someone mad at some point -- probably sooner rather than later. And if we add people without permission and our e-mail blasts are about Jesus...? That's an extra bad thing, because if the recipient doesn't know Christ we're giving them an open door to start to resent and bad-mouth "inconsiderate Christians."

All this to say that I think too much about stuff. I should probably just e-mail and say, "Please remove me from your e-mail distribution list." And in the grand scheme of things, it won't hurt me to just keep on receiving the e-mails. I just thought about unsubscribing and all the stuff above hit me.

If I personally know you, it's not your e-mail list that I'm talking about, so no worries, right?

Posted in: Culture, Technology