March 3, 2004

Subject lines on email I don't open any more. I'm happy to get email from readers (and will assume you don't mind being quoted, but want to be quoted only anonymously, unless you say otherwise), so let me say a word about subject lines. Too much experience with spam has led me to stop opening email (unless I know the name of the sender) that has no subject or that says: "hi," "hello," "re:" (and then nothing), and a lot of things that sound friendly, but only in a generic way. The more specific the words in the subject line are to things I've actually written about, the less likely it is that your email will get dumped along with "Alecia's" "she'll love it," and "Brett's" "increase your girth" (this "she" will not "love" to increase my "girth," thanks).

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