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Short version: they have an extra "blackhole"/archive list for every team that every email is cc'd to. Also anyone can subscribe to anything. The problem with

by abalone 13y ago

Short version: they have an extra "blackhole"/archive list for every team that every email is cc'd to. Also anyone can subscribe to anything. The problem with this is, opacity is not the biggest problem with email. It's inbox noise. Reading through tons of emails that should have a more limited audience or have already lost their relevance. I don't see how this approach reduces noise. If nobody is really expected to read the archive list, why bother sending something to it? If anything, transparency might actually make things worse, because they way you get it is by spending even more time digging through email archives. To solve the Email Problem I would look to "newsfeed" style systems like Yammer or completely different models like chatrooms. Those can do a lot more to prioritize attention.

kamens 13y ago
The entire thing is opt-in. Nobody is subscribed to anything by default — if you want to listen in on the mobile team's archive, you can. But you don't have to. This reduces inbox noise because it increases the percentage of emails in my inbox that people expect me to read completely and/or do something about. No more "might as well just CC Ben for the heck of it." Those goes elsewhere, for me to quickly browse the subject line if and when I choose.
- abalone 13y ago
  Not buying it. A "blackhole" full of random emails to and from miscellaneous team members is not a great place to send an email that you think Ben might want to scan. Realistically, for Ben to even see the email, he'd had to dig through tons of random crap in the hopes that there might be a subject line that catches his eye. There wouldn't even be an indication that someone thought that particular one might be up his alley (CC: Ben).. it's just a giant pool of random subjects to wade through. So that's even more noise for him to wade through. Realistically, Ben isn't even going to do that. And the sender is going to realize that too and still CC Ben, so that he gets a chance to scan it.
  - kamens 13y ago
    I respect your skepticism, but that's not what happens in practice on our 25+ person team.

by abalone 13y ago

kamens 13y ago

The entire thing is opt-in. Nobody is subscribed to anything by default — if you want to listen in on the mobile team's archive, you can. But you don't have to. This reduces inbox noise because it increases the percentage of emails in my inbox that people expect me to read completely and/or do something about. No more "might as well just CC Ben for the heck of it." Those goes elsewhere, for me to quickly browse the subject line if and when I choose.

abalone 13y ago
Not buying it. A "blackhole" full of random emails to and from miscellaneous team members is not a great place to send an email that you think Ben might want to scan. Realistically, for Ben to even see the email, he'd had to dig through tons of random crap in the hopes that there might be a subject line that catches his eye. There wouldn't even be an indication that someone thought that particular one might be up his alley (CC: Ben).. it's just a giant pool of random subjects to wade through. So that's even more noise for him to wade through. Realistically, Ben isn't even going to do that. And the sender is going to realize that too and still CC Ben, so that he gets a chance to scan it.
- kamens 13y ago
  I respect your skepticism, but that's not what happens in practice on our 25+ person team.