Bedlam DL3 (revisited)

So, I am on a few distribution lists that pertain directly to my every day job.  I have a few others that are nice to look at because there is interesting stuff.  One of the hobby DL’s that I like to read is our “Pocket PC Users and Enthusiasts”, which we share all kinds of gripes and praise about our Windows Mobile devices.

Justin Emch, our resident Program Manager for mobile devices decided that we had fractured into many different DL’s and people where asking the same questions on several different DL’s and a consolidation was in order.  This is a great idea as the rules in my inbox were gathering email from like three different DL’s into one folder to make sure I got it all.  Justin also sent out like 5 emails warning people that this was going to happen and to make sure you adjust your rules appropriately because your inbox could grow pretty quick if the rules don’t pick it up.

Wouldn’t you know it, that a day after it went into effect, you have all kinds of people asking to be unsubscribed from it.  Of course this means that you are flooding 1000’s of mailboxes with your email to unsubscribe, this is Bedlam DL3 all over again! 

First of all, there is no owner of a DL that will unsubscribe you from the DL at Microsoft because it would take too much time to manage DL’s like this.    Second, we have a tool called AutoGroup (formerly known as AutoDL) that lets you manage all your subscriptions and create your own groups.  So, to unsubscribe, you have to go do it yourself.  Lastly, I can’t believe the number of smart people we have at Microsoft that sent Unsubscribe requests to the DL.  I found out about AutoGroup within minutes of joining Microsoft almost 6 years ago since that is how we communicate internally.  I am astounded at the number of people that don’t know about AutoGroup, especially some of the more senior people.

I think the problem is that we have so many interesting DL’s that people subscribe to, that they don’t get a chance to read the email that their Inbox rules filter.  So, those people never saw the ample warning emails that Justin sent and were surprised by the barrage of email yesterday and today to the new DL.  My advice:  Prune the DL’s you are on to a manageable level and only subscribe to the ones that you can read each week.