[LINK] All-pocalypse Reply-all email

[Jan Whitaker]

NYU Student Email Reply-Allpocalypse: Entire Student Body Bombarded 
Due To Listserv Error

New York University students haven't had the easiest semester. They 
already had to make it through Hurricane Sandy and on Monday night, 
they also had to make it through Reply-Allpocalypse 2012.

It all started when NYU sophomore Max Wiseltier accidentally replied 
to a message sent out to 39,979 students reminding them to fill out a 
tax form. Wiseltier tried to cover up his error with a quick apology 
email, saying he accidentally hit "Reply All" -- but that only made 
it worse by revealing anyone could Reply All.

People began using the email thread to share photos of Nicolas Cage, 
to ask if they could borrow a pencil and to pose the query: "Would 
you rather fight 100 duck sized horses, or 1 horse sized duck?"

According to NYU Local's Ben Zweig, Reply-Allpocalypse occurred 
because several NYU departments still rely an "older, 
discussion-based ListManager program," which sends mass emails, "but 
allows discussions (in the form of reply-alls), unless the settings 
are adjusted."

At some point, a student CC-ed BuzzFeed on the thread, and the site 
collected a few screenshots of the emails. You can view some of the 
emails sent out on the listserv, reaction on Twitter and a few memes 
created around the fiasco in the slideshow below:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/28/nyu-email-reply-all_n_2204527.html


Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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