by LittleMissSunshine - Shel & Barney Rule L.
Member since:
August 22, 2006

My Gather Experiment

March 22, 2007 11:21 AM EDT
views: 102 | comments: 33

This morning I sent out an email to everyone on my connections list linking them to an article. This is the text of the email:

I was having a discussion with another Gather member about increasing readership. My main contention with why I don't do mass emails is that I don't really use them to read articles.

I'm going to do this one time and direct everyone to what I hope will become a series of articles on substitute teaching experiences <a href="http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976938172> http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474976938172 </a href> Please consider reading and commenting and sharing your own school experiences either with substitute teachers or as one.

If you hate receiving these types of emails please respond to this email and I will make a list of names not to  mail in the future.

Shelley

 

So far I have received one response on the article and two saying they don't normally respond to or read articles from mass emails. I will try to keep you updated on my experiment as it runs it course. I'll post more numbers here. I have 325 connections. I'm also interested in how many respond at all.

IF you weren't on  my list, feel free to respond here. You can also respond here if you are on my list. It'll be interesting to find out the results. 

 

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Comments: 33

Μόףףý ● ķ ~ Mar 22, 2007, 11:29am EDT
Shelley,

I think you will find that the majority of people will not bother to respond. I know I don't,
unless the message comes from someone who interacts with me on a regular basis. That means they read and comment on my stuff and I do the same for them. I find it hard to believe that you would have an interactive type relationship with that many connections! How could you possibly have time to read and comment on 325 peoples work?

Good luck with your experiment.
Randy- Being true to myself Mar 22, 2007, 11:31am EDT
Hoperfully you will find out some great information with your experiment.

I generally look for articles, and read as many as possible during the day, so the mass emails I just delete to be honest with you.
LittleMissSunshine - Shel & Barney Rule L. Mar 22, 2007, 11:39am EDT
Moggy, Well if anything it will also help weed out connections. IF people aren't interested in my work either to tell me that they prefer not to get mass emails or to respond to the article. That tells me they don't read my stuff anyway. I think. But, yes, I agree 325 is too many connections.
arlene (no shame in my game) w. Mar 22, 2007, 11:56am EDT
Hello Shelley. I read every email that I receive. If I do not respond by email, then I will respond by posting a comment to the article that I am directed to. It may be a week later, but I always get to them. I often post a comment instead of replying to the email because I don't want to unnecessarily clutter someones inbox.
Elaine A. Mar 22, 2007, 12:03pm EDT
Hi Shelly, most of the time I don't respond to articles, reason is I am not intrested in the article. This however does not mean I do not like the person posting the article. I will look at your article, but I have been away from Gather for a few days and have many messages to read, I'll get to yours, asap.
jessie voigts Mar 22, 2007, 12:21pm EDT
shelley - i have 400 some emails unread in my inbox. it is horrible, i don't want to put the time in to read them when i'd rather read articles. you know? that said, the gather email does have a function. i wish this had come to your substitute teaching article! i AM interested in that. :)
Miz Lynn aka/BooBoo Mar 22, 2007, 12:22pm EDT
Shelley, you're on my connections list. I don't mind mass emails from my connections, but do mind mass emails from people I don't even know asking me to read this or that...I've received many, many First Chapters emails lately from contestants asking me to read their entry. This bugs me, but its not a major thing with me I just hit the "block" button.
Sara :-) Mar 22, 2007, 12:29pm EDT
Shelley, I rarely ever read my messages or less it's personally directed at me. I normally delete all mass emails without opening. It's just to much and takes a lot of time to go through each one. I do check my connections on here every time I log in, so I feel I keep up the best I can.
donna h. Mar 22, 2007, 12:32pm EDT
Shelley, I dont have quite as many connections as you do! but sometimes I get overwhelmed with the emails!!please don't ever take as a snub- because it is not or meant to be.I have been overwhelmed in general lately.
Michele Scercy Mar 22, 2007, 12:36pm EDT
Hi Shelley. I read my emails but don't always read the articles they are directing me to. If the subject matter is something I'm not interested in then I don't read it.
Wilma M. Mar 22, 2007, 1:22pm EDT
I am not a connection of yours but thought I would respond. I usually at least glance at the article that the mass e-mail refers me to. I just deleted the requests to read first chapter entries as I wasn't really interested in that. I don't respond to the e-mail but will make a comment on the article if I find it interesting.
☆ ƒåitĥ ☆ Mar 22, 2007, 1:53pm EDT
Hi there. I get SO many emails every day that I probably have about 200 unread ones, and those are usually the ones with generic subject lines, obviously not really directed to me. I get a LOT of First Chapter emails, and really never go to them unless the person is actually directing it to ME and is talking to ME. Emails like the one you sent out today are ones I would never respond to, unless you were a connection of mine that I'm in contact with a lot. But, I almost always go to the article that I am directed to and leave a comment at the article. I hope this helps or was even the kind of answer you were looking for.
I am like faith, I get so many emails each day, that I delete most of em. I will check out that article later.
Karen E. Mar 22, 2007, 2:24pm EDT
I have added you as a subscription so that I don't miss your series. It is hard to read everything and get anything else done.

Karen
Kathy P. Mar 22, 2007, 2:59pm EDT
HI Shelly I did not get an email but I will go read your article and leave a note about Subbing ( I do part time in elem. school) I do not always read emails daily sometimes I have been a week behind so donot give up on your experment
Leslie ~ from NYC ~ R. Mar 22, 2007, 3:26pm EDT
I read the notes and don't always answer. I believe I read about subbing already, no?
Carol Lloyd Mar 22, 2007, 3:30pm EDT
Good luck
Hi, Shelley! I got the message and am trying to make it to the article.

BTW, my note didn't include the link so I am glad I found this article.
Gregg Donaldson Mar 22, 2007, 4:16pm EDT
Shelley How is experiment going? I usually check my email, but delete notifications.
Hi Greg. I love it. I've always wondered how everyone feels regarding mass emails. What I'm going to try to do is wait a day or so and then start to total various responses. It's like a mini gather research project for me. For those wanting to see the substitute teaching article it can be found at
Leslie, Hi you did read this and thank you. You found it by the boards though. For statistical (although they won't be perfect) purposes would you have been more or less likely to read it if it were in your email and you hadn't noticed it on the boards?


Sorry to everyone I had a meeting at 1:30 about a long-term sub position I am going to take.
Rob Appell Mar 22, 2007, 5:35pm EDT
When someone in my network publishes, usual and E-mail is send to my home address notifiying me. I go down through my list in order of when they come in and read, rate and comment this way. This way, I know I'm not missing anyone or anything. It gets too complicated responding to E-mails in the gather mailbox as I get articles from others I'm not connected with...and I only respond to "my people".
Dawne Joy Mar 22, 2007, 6:38pm EDT
Shel, I NEVER got your email. I didn't realize when we talked earlier that you had sent out an email. Maybe somethings up with your mail. I'll go check it out now.
It appears my link was done in by a " or I should say done in because I left out the ". This means that my gather experiment was done in by a variable that should have been controlled and was not.
Ron (in complete sheeple overload) W. Mar 22, 2007, 7:31pm EDT
OK, this explains a lot. I sent you a reply, then came looking for the article you were talking about, and found this. As I said in my reply, one email once in a long while I will try to honor, but if it's regular at all, I have disconnected because it is an effort to gain an edge on everyone else, and we all want to be read, but if we all sent emails every time we publish, no one would get anything done, except read emails. It's encouraging bad behaviour to honor them, on that basis.
Elizabeth Davis Mar 22, 2007, 10:50pm EDT
I'm sorry. I didn't get the link, but I seen it on your "failed experiment" article.
Elizabeth Davis Mar 22, 2007, 10:51pm EDT
I would have read it, most likely, but don't know about commenting.
Wendy F. Mar 22, 2007, 11:13pm EDT
ah , I am glad I came back to read this article , I didn't get link to the substitute teaching and I did want to read it . Will go there now.
I usually almost always respond to my emails and don't mind getting mass emails at all. however I do know that not everyone is of the same thinking as I am.

Also if you send me an email and point an article out to me, I am 99% more apt to read it than if I have to go looking for it.....I admit to often being lazy! lol
Karolyn Q. Mar 27, 2007, 9:56am EDT
I have had computer problems starting last week and have been behind in Gather as well as all my email groups. I try to rate at the very least on Gather when I am so far behind. I probably had about 500 emails to go through for Gather alone in the past two days.
necee t. Mar 16, 2008, 11:54pm EDT
oops, wrong year... sorry...
B.B. B. Oct 22, 2008, 4:14pm EDT
UPS IM IN THE WRONG YEAR TOO, THOSE OLD POSTS SHOULD BE TAKEN OUT.

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