If you're looking for apartments: yes
If you're wanting to do things: probably not
ITT: Every large city.
According to some of the posters here, Boston is unique though, since you basically cannot skip using a realtor/broker to find an apartment. So it is its own little unique hell compared to like SFBay or something.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
So should I be happy that a user read one of my emails or sad that they only read the first line?
First line needs to tell them to read the entire message...
In my experience, if you can't express the entire message in the first line you need to rethink the communication medium. One option is to have the e-mail only say, "The attached document contains the instructions you should follow in full."
It's not an individual sucking, people en masse are super bad about reading full e-mails.
You will continue to send out instructions, and without fail, most of the users will be asking questions specifically answered in previous bullet points.
So while making something concise and readable is ideal, in the end it won't matter, cause they won't read it anyways.
You will continue to send out instructions, and without fail, most of the users will be asking questions specifically answered in previous bullet points.
So while making something concise and readable is ideal, in the end it won't matter, cause they won't read it anyways.
Perhaps we're doing the thread thing where we just hate.
But if we're not, I will say great gains can be made by just making more concise, readable instructions and presenting them in the right way. Not 100% solutions, but gains.
One of my absolute favorite things: If you're in charge of planning a call center, doing something like making a FAQ with online help available and forcing the caller to interact with it as part of calling you, then DELIBERATELY having longer hold times, increases resolution without help desk involvement. Basically make them so bored they'll read the documentation while they wait for you to pick up.
the tapes themselves are still the most reliable offline backup I've ever encountered. It's the multi tape loaders that are the problem, they're like printers in that they have so many moving parts to break.
I've never seen a single tape drive fail. It's always the multi tape loader drives.
You will continue to send out instructions, and without fail, most of the users will be asking questions specifically answered in previous bullet points.
So while making something concise and readable is ideal, in the end it won't matter, cause they won't read it anyways.
Send instructions in 72 point wingdings. You'll find out real quick who's paying attention.
the tapes themselves are still the most reliable offline backup I've ever encountered. It's the multi tape loaders that are the problem, they're like printers in that they have so many moving parts to break.
I've never seen a single tape drive fail. It's always the multi tape loader drives.
Or its the Backup Exec 12.5 that they refuse to upgrade/replace and constantly has driver issues.
the tapes themselves are still the most reliable offline backup I've ever encountered. It's the multi tape loaders that are the problem, they're like printers in that they have so many moving parts to break.
I've never seen a single tape drive fail. It's always the multi tape loader drives.
Or its the Backup Exec 12.5 that they refuse to upgrade/replace and constantly has driver issues.
hilariously, we do run backupexec, but it's 16, the most recent version.
I don't hate backupexec as much as some do, not my favorite, but it does work.
That being said, no this was a physical drive issue that required me to take the drive apart to fix a stuck tape.
I don't even think it's an issue with how the information is conveyed.
there will always be people to just dismiss emails they don't think are important
even if your first line is "important: follow these steps to retain computer access" someone out there is gonna be like "yawn more IT bs I get these every day" and gloss over it
other people just... don't gain information by reading, they need to talk to another human
I learned this a long time ago working at conventions. If you want to be 100% effective you can't just put up a sign that says "$Event ->" you need to put a person there, holding that sign, so those people can ask where $Event is
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
the tapes themselves are still the most reliable offline backup I've ever encountered. It's the multi tape loaders that are the problem, they're like printers in that they have so many moving parts to break.
I've never seen a single tape drive fail. It's always the multi tape loader drives.
Yeah but Tape Libraries are still pretty cool. I always loved how they were checking, and putting, and checking, and loading, and putting, and checking, and unloading, and putting, and checking.
"What's Thawmus doing in the Server Room?"
"I think he said backups, but....yeah, he's been staring at that for a while...."
You will continue to send out instructions, and without fail, most of the users will be asking questions specifically answered in previous bullet points.
So while making something concise and readable is ideal, in the end it won't matter, cause they won't read it anyways.
Perhaps we're doing the thread thing where we just hate.
But if we're not, I will say great gains can be made by just making more concise, readable instructions and presenting them in the right way. Not 100% solutions, but gains.
No, I'm not hating on our users, this is just our experience. We went through numerous drafts but it didn't matter. People see an email from IT and move on before it's even marked read.
@Aioua seems to be spot on. Some people just want you to read the email to them.
You will continue to send out instructions, and without fail, most of the users will be asking questions specifically answered in previous bullet points.
So while making something concise and readable is ideal, in the end it won't matter, cause they won't read it anyways.
Perhaps we're doing the thread thing where we just hate.
But if we're not, I will say great gains can be made by just making more concise, readable instructions and presenting them in the right way. Not 100% solutions, but gains.
No, I'm not hating on our users, this is just our experience. We went through numerous drafts but it didn't matter. People see an email from IT and move on before it's even marked read.
@Aioua seems to be spot on. Some people just want you to read the email to them.
I was recently flagrantly guilty of this. I saw an e-mail from HR, did the first, second and fourth sentences but apparently didn't read the third. It was not malicious, but I think my brain just classifies e-mails from HR as skim-worthy.
the tapes themselves are still the most reliable offline backup I've ever encountered. It's the multi tape loaders that are the problem, they're like printers in that they have so many moving parts to break.
I've never seen a single tape drive fail. It's always the multi tape loader drives.
Why not use hot swappable hard drives? Less moving parts. Drop it into the enclosure, startup the software, bingo-bango-bongo?
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
You will continue to send out instructions, and without fail, most of the users will be asking questions specifically answered in previous bullet points.
So while making something concise and readable is ideal, in the end it won't matter, cause they won't read it anyways.
Perhaps we're doing the thread thing where we just hate.
But if we're not, I will say great gains can be made by just making more concise, readable instructions and presenting them in the right way. Not 100% solutions, but gains.
No, I'm not hating on our users, this is just our experience. We went through numerous drafts but it didn't matter. People see an email from IT and move on before it's even marked read.
@Aioua seems to be spot on. Some people just want you to read the email to them.
I was recently flagrantly guilty of this. I saw an e-mail from HR, did the first, second and fourth sentences but apparently didn't read the third. It was not malicious, but I think my brain just classifies e-mails from HR as skim-worthy.
Oh my God I just had a flashback to my bank call center days.
Customer calls: "I got this letter what does it mean"
"Well, what does it say?"
*Customer reads letter aloud to me over the phone*
*I repeat back what they said using slightly different words*
"Ok, okay, thanks for explaining it."
This happened all the time.
life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
You will continue to send out instructions, and without fail, most of the users will be asking questions specifically answered in previous bullet points.
So while making something concise and readable is ideal, in the end it won't matter, cause they won't read it anyways.
Perhaps we're doing the thread thing where we just hate.
But if we're not, I will say great gains can be made by just making more concise, readable instructions and presenting them in the right way. Not 100% solutions, but gains.
No, I'm not hating on our users, this is just our experience. We went through numerous drafts but it didn't matter. People see an email from IT and move on before it's even marked read.
@Aioua seems to be spot on. Some people just want you to read the email to them.
I was recently flagrantly guilty of this. I saw an e-mail from HR, did the first, second and fourth sentences but apparently didn't read the third. It was not malicious, but I think my brain just classifies e-mails from HR as skim-worthy.
I'm not sure I've ever read an HR email here.
Outlook rules, assemble!
I pull those out of Content Search to be sure I'm not asking stupid questions around open enrollment time...
0
FFOnce Upon a TimeIn OaklandRegistered Userregular
You will continue to send out instructions, and without fail, most of the users will be asking questions specifically answered in previous bullet points.
So while making something concise and readable is ideal, in the end it won't matter, cause they won't read it anyways.
Send instructions in 72 point wingdings. You'll find out real quick who's paying attention.
I've wanted to put in random keywords or phrases mid-way through emails, just to see who's paying attention. Haven't worked up the nerve to actually do it though.
Oh my God I just had a flashback to my bank call center days.
Customer calls: "I got this letter what does it mean"
"Well, what does it say?"
*Customer reads letter aloud to me over the phone*
*I repeat back what they said using slightly different words*
"Ok, okay, thanks for explaining it."
This happened all the time.
When this happens I assume that some of the people who do that aren't lazy, they're just better at processing language by audio than by text.
I think the nature of this being a text-based forum we have sampling bias in favor of people who are better at reading than at listening. (I know I certainly am.)
(Random factoid: Approximately 1% of the population is bona fide dyslexic.)
If I send out an email and the rate of people calling me back asking it to explain it is around 1-2%, I don't sweat it.
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
You will continue to send out instructions, and without fail, most of the users will be asking questions specifically answered in previous bullet points.
So while making something concise and readable is ideal, in the end it won't matter, cause they won't read it anyways.
Send instructions in 72 point wingdings. You'll find out real quick who's paying attention.
I've wanted to put in random keywords or phrases mid-way through emails, just to see who's paying attention. Haven't worked up the nerve to actually do it though.
I do this all the time. Just little jokes. Nothing particularly controversial.
My example users are often pop stars and example passwords are often song lyrics. I like to see who notices that Ed Sheeran has an email address here.
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
I do get annoyed when IT people or software developers don't read shit though.
IT and programming are not good professional tracks for people who are bad at reading.
I feel for you if you're genuinely dyslexic and I will make reasonable efforts to accommodate that disability. (I work closely with a dyslexic person right now and my last boss was dyslexic.) But I need to see that you are at least trying.
To be in this line of work you have to accept that reading is essential and it's ultimately going to be your problem to overcome, not mine.
Feral on
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
You will continue to send out instructions, and without fail, most of the users will be asking questions specifically answered in previous bullet points.
So while making something concise and readable is ideal, in the end it won't matter, cause they won't read it anyways.
Send instructions in 72 point wingdings. You'll find out real quick who's paying attention.
I've wanted to put in random keywords or phrases mid-way through emails, just to see who's paying attention. Haven't worked up the nerve to actually do it though.
I do this all the time. Just little jokes. Nothing particularly controversial.
My example users are often pop stars and example passwords are often song lyrics. I like to see who notices that Ed Sheeran has an email address here.
I've found that making emails funny makes people more likely to read them. I've had people tell me they read my long emails only because I make them funny.
That being said, I'm only in a semi-professional environment. And this doesn't work if everybody tries to be funny (or if you're not funny).
the tapes themselves are still the most reliable offline backup I've ever encountered. It's the multi tape loaders that are the problem, they're like printers in that they have so many moving parts to break.
I've never seen a single tape drive fail. It's always the multi tape loader drives.
Why not use hot swappable hard drives? Less moving parts. Drop it into the enclosure, startup the software, bingo-bango-bongo?
Hard Drives are not as good for transport to offsite and cold storage though. Higher chance of damage.
the tapes themselves are still the most reliable offline backup I've ever encountered. It's the multi tape loaders that are the problem, they're like printers in that they have so many moving parts to break.
I've never seen a single tape drive fail. It's always the multi tape loader drives.
Why not use hot swappable hard drives? Less moving parts. Drop it into the enclosure, startup the software, bingo-bango-bongo?
Hard Drives are not as good for transport to offsite and cold storage though. Higher chance of damage.
I am skeptical that that is true. Doubly so for solid states that have no moving parts.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
the tapes themselves are still the most reliable offline backup I've ever encountered. It's the multi tape loaders that are the problem, they're like printers in that they have so many moving parts to break.
I've never seen a single tape drive fail. It's always the multi tape loader drives.
Why not use hot swappable hard drives? Less moving parts. Drop it into the enclosure, startup the software, bingo-bango-bongo?
Hard Drives are not as good for transport to offsite and cold storage though. Higher chance of damage.
I am skeptical that that is true. Doubly so for solid states that have no moving parts.
I'll grant you solid state drives, but SSD for long term cold storage is not economical yet.
Platter drives are definitely heaver and more expensive on a per-TB basis than tapes, and more fragile. An LTO-7 tape holds 6TB uncompressed and you can buy them for around $75 ea. Cheaper if you buy in bulk and have a good VAR.
SSDs fix the weight and fragility problems, but not the expense.
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
That said, I haven't actually backed up to tape in a while. These days, the "offline" backup just means "online via a different protocol."
It still runs the risk of a disgruntled employee logging into the backup NAS or the cloud provider and deleting everything, but the usual threats of ransomware and malware can't get to it.
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
I'm thinking about setting up a little storage box with like 20 gigs or something and FTP, and batching out backups via FTP. Just so it's physically separated from windows protocols and shit.
bowen on
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
My actual plan is that I have a NAS to handle most of the backups, and then run a once a week full backup to tape, and that's what goes offsite. Once that is done we won't need the multi-tape drive, a single tape drive will do. I'm just not there yet because reasons.
I'm thinking about setting up a little storage box with like 20 gigs or something and FTP, and batching out backups via FTP. Just so it's physically separated from windows protocols and shit.
rsync through an SSL or SSH tunnel would be a good protocol for that.
rsync will only sync deltas so it'll be much more efficient for incremental backups.
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
I'm thinking about setting up a little storage box with like 20 gigs or something and FTP, and batching out backups via FTP. Just so it's physically separated from windows protocols and shit.
rsync through an SSL or SSH tunnel would be a good protocol for that.
rsync will only sync deltas so it'll be much more efficient for incremental backups.
Yeah it was going to be an sftp thing, not sure if I can use rsync in windows with file locks. We'll see where the wind blows me.
not a doctor, not a lawyer, examples I use may not be fully researched so don't take out of context plz, don't @ me
I'm thinking about setting up a little storage box with like 20 gigs or something and FTP, and batching out backups via FTP. Just so it's physically separated from windows protocols and shit.
rsync through an SSL or SSH tunnel would be a good protocol for that.
rsync will only sync deltas so it'll be much more efficient for incremental backups.
Yeah it was going to be an sftp thing, not sure if I can use rsync in windows with file locks. We'll see where the wind blows me.
There are definitely rsync clients for Windows but I'm not really sure how good they are or if they play nice with file locks or rely on VSS (ugh) or whatever.
every person who doesn't like an acquired taste always seems to think everyone who likes it is faking it. it should be an official fallacy.
I hate to admit it, but I called FiOS customer service a couple weekends back when our home box was acting like it was on battery power. The recording said to check power backups and I was going to be on the phone for a while, so fuck it. Sure enough, the GFCI breaker it was connected to had tripped. Which should never happen, but, hey...
At least I didn't have to actually talk to someone.
We have an admin here who re-forwards administrative emails to our department but changes the email subject because otherwise, people here use filters and rules or just outright delete those emails without reading. And as a result, they'd miss, for example, that our contract processing system (that uses an SAP backbone) will be down for a Friday-through-Monday in the near future. It's also how timecards are handled, so there has been more than the requisite bitching to "get your hours in on time!"
And, yet, I guarantee that people will bitch, and say there was no email.
I have mulled over adding lines to contract-type documents, just to see if anyone actually reads them (i.e. "[X Department] shall perform all work dressed in pink bunny pajamas from A Christmas Story"). I have yet to actually follow through and then demand compliance after the document is signed, but I would be fully within my rights if I did.
Posts
ITT: Every large city.
First line needs to tell them to read the entire message...
According to some of the posters here, Boston is unique though, since you basically cannot skip using a realtor/broker to find an apartment. So it is its own little unique hell compared to like SFBay or something.
In my experience, if you can't express the entire message in the first line you need to rethink the communication medium. One option is to have the e-mail only say, "The attached document contains the instructions you should follow in full."
It's not an individual sucking, people en masse are super bad about reading full e-mails.
You will continue to send out instructions, and without fail, most of the users will be asking questions specifically answered in previous bullet points.
So while making something concise and readable is ideal, in the end it won't matter, cause they won't read it anyways.
Perhaps we're doing the thread thing where we just hate.
But if we're not, I will say great gains can be made by just making more concise, readable instructions and presenting them in the right way. Not 100% solutions, but gains.
so that was a great morning.
there's gotta be a better system
the tapes themselves are still the most reliable offline backup I've ever encountered. It's the multi tape loaders that are the problem, they're like printers in that they have so many moving parts to break.
I've never seen a single tape drive fail. It's always the multi tape loader drives.
Send instructions in 72 point wingdings. You'll find out real quick who's paying attention.
Or its the Backup Exec 12.5 that they refuse to upgrade/replace and constantly has driver issues.
hilariously, we do run backupexec, but it's 16, the most recent version.
I don't hate backupexec as much as some do, not my favorite, but it does work.
That being said, no this was a physical drive issue that required me to take the drive apart to fix a stuck tape.
there will always be people to just dismiss emails they don't think are important
even if your first line is "important: follow these steps to retain computer access" someone out there is gonna be like "yawn more IT bs I get these every day" and gloss over it
other people just... don't gain information by reading, they need to talk to another human
I learned this a long time ago working at conventions. If you want to be 100% effective you can't just put up a sign that says "$Event ->" you need to put a person there, holding that sign, so those people can ask where $Event is
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
Yeah but Tape Libraries are still pretty cool. I always loved how they were checking, and putting, and checking, and loading, and putting, and checking, and unloading, and putting, and checking.
"What's Thawmus doing in the Server Room?"
"I think he said backups, but....yeah, he's been staring at that for a while...."
No, I'm not hating on our users, this is just our experience. We went through numerous drafts but it didn't matter. People see an email from IT and move on before it's even marked read.
@Aioua seems to be spot on. Some people just want you to read the email to them.
I was recently flagrantly guilty of this. I saw an e-mail from HR, did the first, second and fourth sentences but apparently didn't read the third. It was not malicious, but I think my brain just classifies e-mails from HR as skim-worthy.
Why not use hot swappable hard drives? Less moving parts. Drop it into the enclosure, startup the software, bingo-bango-bongo?
I'm not sure I've ever read an HR email here.
Outlook rules, assemble!
Customer calls: "I got this letter what does it mean"
"Well, what does it say?"
*Customer reads letter aloud to me over the phone*
*I repeat back what they said using slightly different words*
"Ok, okay, thanks for explaining it."
This happened all the time.
fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
I pull those out of Content Search to be sure I'm not asking stupid questions around open enrollment time...
I've wanted to put in random keywords or phrases mid-way through emails, just to see who's paying attention. Haven't worked up the nerve to actually do it though.
When this happens I assume that some of the people who do that aren't lazy, they're just better at processing language by audio than by text.
I think the nature of this being a text-based forum we have sampling bias in favor of people who are better at reading than at listening. (I know I certainly am.)
(Random factoid: Approximately 1% of the population is bona fide dyslexic.)
If I send out an email and the rate of people calling me back asking it to explain it is around 1-2%, I don't sweat it.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I do this all the time. Just little jokes. Nothing particularly controversial.
My example users are often pop stars and example passwords are often song lyrics. I like to see who notices that Ed Sheeran has an email address here.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
IT and programming are not good professional tracks for people who are bad at reading.
I feel for you if you're genuinely dyslexic and I will make reasonable efforts to accommodate that disability. (I work closely with a dyslexic person right now and my last boss was dyslexic.) But I need to see that you are at least trying.
To be in this line of work you have to accept that reading is essential and it's ultimately going to be your problem to overcome, not mine.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
I've found that making emails funny makes people more likely to read them. I've had people tell me they read my long emails only because I make them funny.
That being said, I'm only in a semi-professional environment. And this doesn't work if everybody tries to be funny (or if you're not funny).
Hard Drives are not as good for transport to offsite and cold storage though. Higher chance of damage.
I am skeptical that that is true. Doubly so for solid states that have no moving parts.
I'll grant you solid state drives, but SSD for long term cold storage is not economical yet.
SSDs fix the weight and fragility problems, but not the expense.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
It still runs the risk of a disgruntled employee logging into the backup NAS or the cloud provider and deleting everything, but the usual threats of ransomware and malware can't get to it.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
rsync through an SSL or SSH tunnel would be a good protocol for that.
rsync will only sync deltas so it'll be much more efficient for incremental backups.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Yeah it was going to be an sftp thing, not sure if I can use rsync in windows with file locks. We'll see where the wind blows me.
There are definitely rsync clients for Windows but I'm not really sure how good they are or if they play nice with file locks or rely on VSS (ugh) or whatever.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
At least I didn't have to actually talk to someone.
We have an admin here who re-forwards administrative emails to our department but changes the email subject because otherwise, people here use filters and rules or just outright delete those emails without reading. And as a result, they'd miss, for example, that our contract processing system (that uses an SAP backbone) will be down for a Friday-through-Monday in the near future. It's also how timecards are handled, so there has been more than the requisite bitching to "get your hours in on time!"
And, yet, I guarantee that people will bitch, and say there was no email.
I have mulled over adding lines to contract-type documents, just to see if anyone actually reads them (i.e. "[X Department] shall perform all work dressed in pink bunny pajamas from A Christmas Story"). I have yet to actually follow through and then demand compliance after the document is signed, but I would be fully within my rights if I did.