Am I smarter than a Fifth Grader?

The horror that you asked me to be apart of a music networking site. THE HORROR!!

Over the weekend I had a bit of mishap. Pshaw!--mishap is an understatement. I had an asleep-at-the-wheel Chernobyl-like disaster.

I had been told to join Last.fm. And even though I knew about the site years back, I only decided to sign-up now, based off of a close friend's recommendation. During the registration process, there's a prompt when signing up, to "add your contacts" from your email account.

Thinking I could individually send the message to my chosen contacts, I made sure to check (UK: tick) that portion. I've must've done something wrong, or perhaps double-clicked when I should've single-clicked. Anyway, soon after, I returned to my email to be greeted by disturbing message stating that recipient had received that very same Last.fm invite 5 times in a row.

Cue Kyle's mom: "Wha-what--WHAAAAT??!?!"

Long story short, I realized I sent the Last.fm email to every single contact in my address book--all 946 of them... 5 times.

Smooth move, Sherlock. Yeah, I know.

So I spent the weekend putting out fires and cleaning up that mess. And I know how sensitive people are about spam. So I was super-worried. I think I've grown 3 premature grey hairs since Friday. I ended up sending a mass email, because I had no choice. I couldn't distinguish who did and who didn't receive the email. And I didn't know how many times they received it. Ugh. Double-ugh!

Another blogger buddy suggested that this fiasco was too good an opportunity for you, the reader, to NOT enjoy. So below, I have posted my apology email and then the responses I received from them. Take stock and feel free to revel in my pain. (deep sigh)

My email:

Dear Email Recipient,
I dearly apologize for the repeated emails sent from me from Last.fm.
I mistakenly added my entire address book, in which I see Gmail holds on to every last email correspondence I've ever received or written.

(sigh)

Apparently, I still haven't mastered the basic science of email.
It was a massive blunder on my behalf.
I hope it didn't ruin your Inbox experience.

Please email if you want to permanently removed, so this doesn't happen again.

my deepest apologies,
Lucy

-----
And the responses...

Don't sweat it - you're a nice contact.

Lucy, I demand compensation for my distress. 3 cents should cover it ;-)
hehe. Have a great weekend.

No problem! I was glad to see I wasn't the only person listening to WHAM! and the Hansons.

(Addendum: I don't listen to Hanson. But I am guilty of a little George Michael here and there. Well, let's be honest... A LOT of George Michael. I don't care what anybody says. That man is hot---past, present, and future.)

Hysterical apology – you should include this in your stand up act... :-)

No worries! I've done the same thing...sometimes Gmail saving everything works in my favor and sometimes, well, it's just annoying. Eh. Better to be more inclusive I suppose :)

Hope you're having a lovely holiday season :)

please permanently remove me. i do not know who you are or how you got my address.. i have no interest in your comedy.

It's all good! I signed up anyway.

For that, you deserve a bare bottom spanking...
and after that, you must spank me...
(spoken in my best Monty Python -Holy Grail voice)...

Lucy,
It was no problem! Don't worry about it, OK? Do you like this Last.fm? Is it worth it?

By the way, are you on Facebook?
Hugs and stuff,

Hi Lucy,

Don't worry. Same thing happened to me a while back with a network
called Quetchup. I deleted your email, thinking it was the same thing,
so no harm done over here.

See you around,

Hey no problem Lucy! I only received it once. I did, however, find two emails from you in my spam folder. So I am writing to confirm that everything is fine... and now you know why you never heard from me again. :)

Hope you have a better day!

No, I don't want to be permanently removed! You don't have to send your goons after me.

No big deal. Welcome to life on the internet. ;)

Hey no problem! I only got one email, so that's fine.

No sweat, Ive only come back into action under a different blog name I must check you out.

No problem Lucy! :)

Lucy, It was really no big deal! And I still check out your blog from time to time :)

I was so angry at you! haha just joking. I thought you were a spammer.

No problem, Lucy. It wasn't more than a month ago when I attempted to send a "sexually provocative" text message to an ex boyfriend on my cell phone and accidently sent it to all my recent phone calls (including my boss, my mother, etc.) Haha.

oh. you better do more than apologize. my inbox experience has been...ah...RUINED!!! alas...i am signing off...forever.

haha. kidding of course. *have a productive day, writer extraordinaire!!

Lucy! You are a fabulous writer and very funny! I've been enjoying your musings a great deal. I'd also never read that sonnet by Mr William S before. So yesterday, I deleted your invite as I mistook it for spam. Would you send it again? This time I'll join and would love to.

Lucy, Not a problem and you certainly have my empathy, as I had a similar problem with Quechup. Have a good weekend,

Lucy:
Please do not beat yourself up over this issue. That is something that you needed to experience for the next time you are setting up an account on a social network and you know to bypass their request to help and invite your friends to join you. Trust me, we’ve all done this starting out. So as far as I am concerned, you are forgiven . .. .LOL!
I know you may have received some nasty-grams from others, but not me because I’ve “been there – done that” with this too! Actually, I too have a Last.fm account I forgot I had until your message. So thanks for the reminder!
Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Hi Lucy,

For a moment, I felt very popular. “12 emails!! I’ve hit the big time.”

Then I saw they were all identical.

No harm. I just took to drinking earlier than usual… Keep me on the list. I love a good excuse to start drinking early!

Seriously, I am going to have to do some listening to Radiohead. I don’t know that I recognize them when I hear them. Maybe I do. They have come up on a number of ‘recommended’ lists from friends.

I only need to be told twice.

Keep writing the great posts. I laughed my ass off again at the Chris Rock vid cip. He is masterful. I think he falls through the cracks for too many people. He is brilliant.

Have a fun holiday, and keep those emails coming…

No worries, don;t you hate that part when other sites sent to email to ALL recipients instead of just the ones you select?

All is fine. Hope you are well.

Yesterday, a young man was shot outside my front door. Duplicate e-mails don't worry me. God bless and have a happy and safe holiday.
Peace

Hi Lucy,
No worries - I simply deleted them. Keep pluggin!

Oh man, that sucks, I thought that the invite was personally sent for me.
How disappointing. :(

Hi Lucy,
How are you been? How is your stand up coming along? When is your next show? Next Year, I am going to be very very serious about my stand up comedy. I need to find a comedy buddy too and oh no need to apologize stuff happens.

Don't worry! I never use my address book because of the fear something crazy happening. =) And, I have been
using email since 1996. Go figure!

It happens to the best of us.. And if anybody is complaining pay them no mind.. (smile) Happy Holidays..

That is one unpleasant default option of gmail, isn't it? When you
install gTalk, it automatically imports that entire address book, too.
Like I need to see that some website administrator I only had one
tiny insignificant question with is online.

You're adorable! <==== From a guy! (Not gay!) Well, I don't think he's gay. Well, I can't be too sure. Forget it. Just forget it.

The horror that you asked me to be apart of a music networking site. THE HORROR!! <=== I actually burst out laughing from this response. Thank you! I needed that.

Well Ive just added you anyway. I'm not sure how I know a female stand-up comedian from NY, Im sure my fame as a Welsh political blogger hasn't spread that far afield, but I know I would like to know (or pretend to know) a female stand up artist from NY, so no, my "inbox experience" was not ruined, Actually I think I remember visiting your blog a while back. Anyway I hope you like Radiohead and the Cocteau Twins, cos that's about all I listen to. Oh, and Flamenco pop and some Welsh stuff.

All the best

PS I'm on facebook. I'm the only [...] and [...] in the world, so Im easy to find. If you add me I'll be able to pretend that im cosmopolitan or something.

(I think this is universe telling me that I should get on Facebook.)

I figured something was amiss…no worries…

We forgive you…..looking forward to reading your update

dude that's fine. I have a last.fm account, if I had known yo uhad one too, I would have added you sooner.

How freaking cool are my friends? 'Nuff said.

Thank you everyone, for not biting off my head like a praying mantis, especially when I was at my most vulnerable and when I deserved it. That shows true character. (Except for that guy who wants nothing to do with me. That guy doesn't know what he's missing out on.) Kidding. I don't even know him. A miscellaneous craigslist add--that went awry.

Toodles...!

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