3 ms·

Deleting emails is not the same as deleting emails to prevent disclosure. I delete emails all the time; I presume everyone does. The email being quoted here doe

by ionfish 17y ago

Deleting emails is not the same as deleting emails to prevent disclosure. I delete emails all the time; I presume everyone does. The email being quoted here doesn't say anything about why Jones "deleted loads of emails". You are inferring more than is warranted.

jacoblyles 17y ago
>"Mike, Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis. Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t have his new email address. We will be getting Caspar to do likewise. … Cheers Phil" http://camirror.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/willis-eschenbachs-foi-request/ http://camirror.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/willis-eschenbachs-...
10ren 17y ago
Just a side question: I hardly ever delete emails (except for automatic reminders etc), and I always assumed that's the standard thing (I'm using gmail). But ionfish deletes emails, so I'm questioning my assumption. Do you delete emails?
- DanielBMarkham 17y ago
  I never delete any emails. I find with several years of emails and a good search engine, it's like having a super memory.
  - electromagnetic 17y ago
    Agreed, I've had email since I can remember and I'm only 21. Aside from them getting lost from formats, I have never deleted a genuine email. Even with a piss poor search engine, it's better than my computer-dependent brain's attempt at memory. I've flat-out given up on remembering many things, I either have a note pad and pen or they end up on google Docs so I can retrieve them anywhere. (Edit: All I need is a good smartphone plan and Google Docs and Gmail can flat-out replace my need to remember anything)
- Kadin 17y ago
  I have in the past (when disk was a lot more expensive than it is now) deleted email that I was sure I'd never care about -- archives from projects that had concluded, for instance, and mostly consisted of "hey, can you come into my office for a minute" type stuff. But I've never deleted sent messages. I pretty much have every message I've ever sent, minus a few here and there that perished due to hardware failure. This is mostly for CYA reasons but also just because it's a useful personal historical record. I would be pretty suspicious if someone told me to go through my workstation and delete messages pertaining to a certain subject. Although there are companies which, due to the legal climate they operate in, have information-destruction policies (basically keeping stuff for the amount of time legally required and NOT A DAY MORE), having a policy that's in effect all the time is a lot less suspect than requesting specific emails be destroyed.
  - ahlatimer 17y ago
    I don't delete sent message either, but I do go through my inbox from time to time and clear out things I don't think I'll care about in the future. That may very well bite me in the ass later on, but that's why god invented backups.
electromagnetic 17y ago
I've never deleted a genuine email in my entire life. I've deleted thousands of emails, sometimes in one go, but I've never mentioned 'deleting loads of emails' it's "I deleted a shit load of spam today, it was a fucking boat load, you could feed a third world country!" Perhaps yes he deleted a lot of spam, but no one on the planet considers them emails. Why would he be any different?
- ahlatimer 17y ago
  I try to go through and regularly delete emails I don't feel to be important. I archive the ones that I do want to keep, but the rest get deleted. I simply don't need to hold on to things like old conversations with my advisors about registration, emails from Facebook, Twitter, etc. containing updates, random emails amongst friends, and many more. I don't consider those to be spam, and some of them were definitely genuine email for the time, regardless of how you define something ambiguous like "genuine email", but I just don't feel the need to be a digital pack rat. There's a decent chance that I'm not the only one that feels this way.
- junklight 17y ago
  a lot of places that are subject to FOI requests have policies in place to delete emails more than X months old (where X is given as part of the policy). Keeps costs down more than anything I think - FOI can be very expensive and time consuming (although it is a good thing).

by ionfish 17y ago

jacoblyles 17y ago

>"Mike, Can you delete any emails you may have had with Keith re AR4? Keith will do likewise. He’s not in at the moment – minor family crisis. Can you also email Gene and get him to do the same? I don’t have his new email address. We will be getting Caspar to do likewise. … Cheers Phil" http://camirror.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/willis-eschenbachs-foi-request/ http://camirror.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/willis-eschenbachs-...

10ren 17y ago

Just a side question: I hardly ever delete emails (except for automatic reminders etc), and I always assumed that's the standard thing (I'm using gmail). But ionfish deletes emails, so I'm questioning my assumption. Do you delete emails?

DanielBMarkham 17y ago
I never delete any emails. I find with several years of emails and a good search engine, it's like having a super memory.
- electromagnetic 17y ago
  Agreed, I've had email since I can remember and I'm only 21. Aside from them getting lost from formats, I have never deleted a genuine email. Even with a piss poor search engine, it's better than my computer-dependent brain's attempt at memory. I've flat-out given up on remembering many things, I either have a note pad and pen or they end up on google Docs so I can retrieve them anywhere. (Edit: All I need is a good smartphone plan and Google Docs and Gmail can flat-out replace my need to remember anything)
Kadin 17y ago
I have in the past (when disk was a lot more expensive than it is now) deleted email that I was sure I'd never care about -- archives from projects that had concluded, for instance, and mostly consisted of "hey, can you come into my office for a minute" type stuff. But I've never deleted sent messages. I pretty much have every message I've ever sent, minus a few here and there that perished due to hardware failure. This is mostly for CYA reasons but also just because it's a useful personal historical record. I would be pretty suspicious if someone told me to go through my workstation and delete messages pertaining to a certain subject. Although there are companies which, due to the legal climate they operate in, have information-destruction policies (basically keeping stuff for the amount of time legally required and NOT A DAY MORE), having a policy that's in effect all the time is a lot less suspect than requesting specific emails be destroyed.
- ahlatimer 17y ago
  I don't delete sent message either, but I do go through my inbox from time to time and clear out things I don't think I'll care about in the future. That may very well bite me in the ass later on, but that's why god invented backups.

electromagnetic 17y ago

I've never deleted a genuine email in my entire life. I've deleted thousands of emails, sometimes in one go, but I've never mentioned 'deleting loads of emails' it's "I deleted a shit load of spam today, it was a fucking boat load, you could feed a third world country!" Perhaps yes he deleted a lot of spam, but no one on the planet considers them emails. Why would he be any different?

ahlatimer 17y ago
I try to go through and regularly delete emails I don't feel to be important. I archive the ones that I do want to keep, but the rest get deleted. I simply don't need to hold on to things like old conversations with my advisors about registration, emails from Facebook, Twitter, etc. containing updates, random emails amongst friends, and many more. I don't consider those to be spam, and some of them were definitely genuine email for the time, regardless of how you define something ambiguous like "genuine email", but I just don't feel the need to be a digital pack rat. There's a decent chance that I'm not the only one that feels this way.
junklight 17y ago
a lot of places that are subject to FOI requests have policies in place to delete emails more than X months old (where X is given as part of the policy). Keeps costs down more than anything I think - FOI can be very expensive and time consuming (although it is a good thing).