Here's a question:

[thebitterguy]

Has anyone ever heard of anyone, ever, successfully recalling an email? Ever?

And the fact that they have a "recall" button indicates that they need an "are you sure?" option.

Maybe it should scan for certain keywords ("Idiot", "slut", "vengeful", "disown", "I run a demo team") and say "let's just put this in the outbox for a bit and come back to it, shall we?"

Comments

[tfbretz.livejournal.com]

I always liked what Greg Stolze said, that went something like, "What would the internet be like if, instead of 'Send,' that little button read 'Do you think anyone really cares?'"

[viktor-haag.livejournal.com]

I have heard of folks making it a common practice to never "send" an email when writing it, but rather to save to a drafts folder. Then, at regularly scheduled intervals throughout the day (i.e. two or three times), you go through your drafts folder and decide which to send and which to save for more work.

Some mail clients might be customizeable enough to reinforce this behaviour through the interface, but those presenting a "recall" button probably are not in that category... 8)

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I did get a recall to work but I was pretty prompt about it.

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

I've seen it done. I seem to remember a coworker sending out an email whose subject line suggested it was about a meeting date or time, and when I clicked on the subject in my inbox it said the message had been recalled. He resent the message a few minutes later (I think he'd made a mistake in the first one).

[rentagurkha.livejournal.com]

I've seen it happen but not often. Of course, it's not like the embarrassing ones haven't been read and saved for posterity before that anyway.

[whisper-jeff.livejournal.com]

I would guess that the only time it's possible is when the email is transfered over an internal server and never "gets into the wild." In other words, one would need to have access to the recipient's mail server to be able to delete the message before it's downloaded and I can only see that happening within a contained system.

[rentagurkha.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's the only case where it works at all. If you send email to someone outside your mail server forget it.

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

I believe that is indeed the case. Also, it requires that your e-mail back-end and clients all be Microsoft, as I don't think "recall" is part of any Internet e-mail standard I'm aware of. May the Gods bless Microsoft for realizing that standards don't need to apply to them! (And yes, that last sentence was intended to drip with sarcasm, having dealt with Microsoft and their ideas about "standards" in the past.)

[fossilapostle.livejournal.com]

The need to make an email client that can not only recall emails, but do a small memory wipe on anyone who already read it, sort of like in Men In Black.

But then I guess you'd see everyone reading their email while wearing sunglasses...

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

But then I guess you'd see everyone reading their email while wearing sunglasses...

You mean everyone doesn't already do that? :-)

[absinthe-dot-ca.livejournal.com]

Maybe that damn paperclip thing could come in handy here... "Hi there! It looks like you're trying to write a seething rant of hatred to your ex-girlfriend! Need some help?"

[easyalchemy.livejournal.com]

I've never been on a internal server that I've consistently used.
I do make liberal use of teh Gmail 'Drafts' folder, much more so than I've ever used any other drafts thinger, partially 'cause I'd get interrupted about every 15 seconds at work, and partially because work and one relationship in particular last year made me occasionally burst into seething-ball-of-hate writing; I recently cleaned out 149 drafts, about half of which were me fumbling over trying to explain to my Board of Directors at work why they're a bunch of fucking idiots without sounding insulting.

I was rarely successful, so I rarely sent the email.

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

Nope, I've had emails sent to me "recalled" but all that meant was that I got a second email saying "so-and-so would like to recall the email sent 01/01/08" or some such thing, then I can click okay or not as I please but even when I click "okay" I think the physical email still stayed in my inbox.

I guess the recall is just like an "oops didn't mean to send that info to you, please disregard" button but it doesn't do much of anything.

[ladystarstruck.livejournal.com]

It sees occasional use at my work, when a message goes out to everyone and the author discovers and error, so recalls it soon after sending. Only those who have read it promptly see it, and it vanishes for everyone else.

[malliabu.livejournal.com]

If I see a message has been recalled and I haven't read the original at that time - you bet your sweet ass I'm gonna see what was so bad in that first e-mail.

Someone usually hits send befpre they're supposed to tho :(