Did you miss this line from the parent's post? But at least a simple automatic e-mail saying "Thank you for applying, regretfully the position is now fille

Did you miss this line from the parent's post? But at least a simple automatic e-mail saying "Thank you for applying, regretfully the position is now filled" or anything indicating "don't wait for an answer" should be the norm. Your argument is that its better to be rude and not even send out an auto-reply because of the possibility that they will reply and want more information. But who cares? If the auto-respond email says "We'll get back to you if we are interested" then the conversation is over for the time being. It is then not rude to ignore any subsequent emails from the job applicant. Let me frame this another way. Sometimes I find that Gmail doesn't always deliver my mail. It's rare, but it happens. A simple auto-reply can give people the peace of mind that they are at least being considered.