Managing emails are a problem. In the outside world, the volume of spam is taxing the system and spam filters have become a major hassle. In a corporate environment, unsolicited emails may not get in, but spam created by co-workers and business associates carbon copying a half-a-dozen people for each intended recipient creates internal spam.

Is has become common practice to abuse using Cc. People use Cc for CYA, I did my job, or look what he/she wrote. Granted, an email is hard evidence an effort to communicate was attempted, but how did we survive before this ability to be so transparent existed? It blows my mind who gets Cc’d on some emails I receive. Most of these sub-recipients couldn’t care less. So people, have some self-control and take responsibility for your communiqués. If you need to share your email, fine, but if it isn’t necessary to inform someone of your actions, don’t.

Another peeve of mine is attachments. I recently set up mailboxes for a client and within a week someone was complaining that a 10Mb limit was too low. When I asked why, they said they needed to send large attachments in excess of 20Mb.

Email is not, nor ever was, intended as a file transport system; File Transport Protocol (FTP) was. Everyone who moves files should know how to use FTP and if 10Mb of mailbox space isn’t enough, you’re not using the system correctly. Use Gmail they give you a whopping 2418 Mb. Party!

Please don’t email anything over 2Mb. Use FTP or another web service. There are dozens of services available today that allow you to move large files using your browser. Some are free for occasional use and others charge a reasonable fee.

Here’s the rub: People Cc too many people with too large of attachments. This creates an enormous amount of unnecessary traffic. Stop the madness. The administrators, mail servers and network will thank you.