The Game of Reply All

I'd like to introduce you to a game you may or may not have seen before. This game is called "Reply All." It's great fun to watch this play out as a spectator because you never want to be a participant in this game. If you're a participant in this game, you have failed. There are no winners. Well, the spectators are the winners if you really enjoy the head-shaking idiocy of the whole thing. Here's how this game works.

First, you have to be in a company or mailing list that has literally hundreds of people. Only with that kind of pool will you have enough players to make the game worth watching. If it's just your aunt and 3rd cousin, it won't last long.

The way the game starts is by someone accidentally sending a message to the wrong mailing list; this is probably the mailing list you were on, and you weren't supposed to get it either. If you're a level-headed individual who gets lots of emails, you'll look at this message, shrug, and then move on. If you're a player of "Replay All," then the game is on.

The volley starts by someone deciding they got this message in error, and the sender needs to know about it. Instead of clicking Reply, they decide to click Reply All to let that sender know. They put in a completely innocuous message such as, "Bob, I don't know what this is. Please remove me from this list." Sheep being what they are, this first message is followed by a barrage of "Me too" from at least a dozen other people.

It's time for the other side to get involved at this point because they've realized the game is on, but they don't realize that they need to stay out of it. The other side hits back with "Please do not Reply All." This might or might not have helpful instructions as to where to find the "Reply Only To Sender" button, or they could leave it at that.

Well, the "Me too" people already have a head start, and it takes awhile for that first "Don't do it" email to circulate, so that is followed by at least a half dozen more "Remove me from this list" or "Me too" emails.

Well, now management really wants a piece of this because they're getting outnumbered, so the next dozen "Me too" emails contain at least that many or more "Stop replying to all" peppered into them. At least one person by now will have changed the subject line to STOP REPLYING TO ALL (yes, in caps), but without a body text. The emails are flying fast and furious at this point with the "Me too" people desperately trying to out-email the "Stop replying to all" side as the game gets to the point that more than a hundred emails end up being sent clogging email boxes and exchange servers across the company.

Eventually, everyone has said their piece and it quiets down for a little bit. That is, until the crowd that only checks their email once a day comes in to find a zillion emails about something they have nothing to do with. They immediately (without a single glance at the subsequent string) reply all with the message "Please remove me from this list" before deleting the entire subseries of emails. The game resumes briefly with an angry "We already dealt with this. Stop replying to all" and a flurry of "Me too," but in the end, the game finally ends.

The last time this game happened, I kept every email and counted up the replies at the end, sorting them by the "remove me"s and the "stop replying to all"s along with a smattering of actual, subject-related emails that normally get lost with at least one being "Please disregard. Sent to the wrong list. Sorry." somewhere near the beginning of the game. That time, the distribution was about 50/50 between the sides.

I was reminded of this game this morning when there was an email for nominations for something or another, and someone replied all saying, "Not sure what I'm getting these. Please stop sending me these emails!" Oh, yes, he used that exclamation point! Because, why not? I got all excited hoping the game was afoot. Alas, no game this morning.

Next time the Replay All game starts in your office, don't be a player. Be a spectator and laugh at the simple-mindedness of your colleagues. Nothing shows character like a good game of "Reply All."