When emailing me privately off list

[Guest guest]

Hi Friends,

Whenever you may wish to write me a private message, I would appreciate if

you would add the phrase " off list " at the beginning of the subject line,

even if you want to leave the rest of the line unchanged. I wasn't

expecting a recent message to be sent to me privately, and didn't realize it

was not a public list post.

Someone wrote me off list a few days ago, but I was immediately aware that

it was a private message because the person began the message by saying they

were writing me off list.

Today, I realize only after doing some research in my

sent items folder that one message from a particular source was on the list,

so

my response went to the list and everyone, which is fine with me, but

another message from the same source turned out to have been sent to me in

private, and I didn't notice that the way you would if you just saw the

Inbox messages, so I thought I was still replying to the list at large and

tried extra hard to be pleasantly personable but not too verbose.

Here's an example. Just adding the words " Off List " prior to the regular

subject line would look like this:

Subject: Off List (was re: ZAP List what is an interstellar fibrillation?)

Or you could leave the subject line alone and just say.

Hi ,

This is off list. When you said you had three dogs, is one of them a guide

dog?

Just kidding around. I have no dogs at all right now.

Thanks very much for the time and trouble. I'm subscribed to a number of

blindness support mailing lists, and we do this all the time to make sure no

one isn't listening closely enough to their computer and doesn't realize

we're writing them privately, as that can result in some embarrassing

situations.tinewe ,

sincerely,