Recently ran into a major embarrassment! Sent a message to a select group of members. Some of those members responded to me but the messaging system sent their message to all who had received the original message. And, of course, this all happened without the sender being aware of what had happened.

Would it be possible to replace the "Send" button in such a situation with two buttons - "Send Only to Message Originator" and "Send to All who received the Original Message" (or some such wording).

Many messages have previously been sent to the entire list with no reply problems. I suspect the problem occured this time when a partial list was used and some members had been deselected from the large list.

Joe

Hi Joe,

At the top of each multi-user thread, it states clearly that all the listed recipients can view and respond to messages in the thread. I suppose it would be possible to place another reminder at the bottom of the page as well, but it is no more of a guarantee that users will read it... The best course when sending a reply to a selected subset of the original recipients is really just to send a new message to only those recipients and thereby eliminate the possibility of accidental over-dissemination.

Eric -

You're right. The wise will have no problem.

However the reality is that the sequence is structured so that without even trying you're directed down the path to send to the list (even though you think you're responding to the last person who has posted).

1. I receive an email advising that I have a new message on the website and to "Click Here to Read Message".

2. I click and I'm forwarded to the specific mwessage on the website that I'm supposed to read.

3. I read the message (without ever realizing that the message is the last in a long string of messages) and then come upon a response box.

4. I write a response to the person whose message I just read and hit the "Send Reply" button (without realizing that I've just sent my response to the entire list!).

If the wording below the response box said something like "Reply to Everyone on the List" or "Reply to the Message Just Read and Also Send the Reply to Everyone on the List" the about-to-happen action would be so much more clear.

Joe

I sent a message to everyone on the list advising of the problem and urging them (pleading with them) to not "Send Reply" for personal messages. In addition I send an email directly to each individual who falls in the trap and accidentally sends their personal email to the list.

So far I've sent 9 emails to individuals who have really no undserstanding that "The best course when sending a reply to a selected subset of the original recipients is really just to send a new message to only those recipients and thereby eliminate the possibility of accidental over-dissemination."

Hopefully this problem will soon resolve (when people stop responding). In a perfect world website users would be able to read, understand, and follow directions. However...

Joe

Your points are valid and well taken. We're in the midst of a system overhaul, and part of that is an evaluation of our interface elements and how well the results of any particular action are conveyed to the user before the action is taken. We'll certainly include this in the evaluation.

Thank you!