Poul-Henning Kamp (“phk” from The FreeBSD Project) had this wit back in 1999, and it's funny to see how much of it still applies today:
But let me suggest a few pop-up windows I would like to see
mail-programs implement whenever people send or reply to email
to the lists they want me to subscribe to:
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Your email is about to be sent to several hundred thousand |
| people, who will have to spend at least 10 seconds reading |
| it before they can decide if it is interesting. At least |
| two man-weeks will be spent reading your email. Many of |
| the recipients will have to pay to download your email. |
| |
| Are you absolutely sure that your email is of sufficient |
| importance to bother all these people ? |
| |
| [YES] [REVISE] [CANCEL] |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Warning: You have not read all emails in this thread yet. |
| Somebody else may already have said what you are about to |
| say in your reply. Please read the entire thread before |
| replying to any email in it. |
| |
| [CANCEL] |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Warning: Your mail program have not even shown you the |
| entire message yet. Logically it follows that you cannot |
| possibly have read it all and understood it. |
| |
| It is not polite to reply to an email until you have |
| read it all and thought about it. |
| |
| A cool off timer for this thread will prevent you from |
| replying to any email in this thread for the next one hour |
| |
| [Cancel] |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| You composed this email at a rate of more than N.NN cps |
| It is generally not possible to think and type at a rate |
| faster than A.AA cps, and therefore you reply is likely to |
| incoherent, badly thought out and/or emotional. |
| |
| A cool off timer will prevent you from sending any email |
| for the next one hour. |
| |
| [Cancel] |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
Bahaha. Especially the last one. Bahahahaha.
