Forwarding previous information in emails

[SMrose]

Hello all.

I had this happen to me very recently: A theatre administrator sent me an email about a tour date with all the previous emails included.  One of the previous emails (not from the administrator) was not very encouraging about the show.

Here is my question to you all: Is it necessary to forward all the information from previous emails that may or may not pertain to the specific subject of the email (i.e. "tour dates")?  If there are negative comments that don't pertain to the subject, should they be omitted?  Should the sender just start a new email if all the previous emails don't effect the subject in the header?

I personally check previous emails that are being forwarded and I am very careful of how I word things since people do tend to forward email on.

[ericjames]

Is it necessary to send along all of the previous information, no.  That is something that is determined by the sender.  I know that when I am forwarding an email, I try to be very aware of what is included.    Sometimes its much safer (and easier) to just start a new email thread completely with the pertinent information. 

However, I there are also times when including everything can be very helpful.   There have been numerous times when I get brought into an email change part-way through the conversation.  In those cases, its often necessary to have the previous emails to figure out the context of the conversation and to see what discussions have already taken place.   

Depending on the topic of the email, there may also be legal reasons to keep an email thread intact.   

my two cents!

[nick_tochelli]

This happens to me all the time in my current job. String of emails back and forth between a customer and then suddenly I need to loop a vendor into it. In those cases, I delete the string unless I need the information contained to ask a question or illustrate a point.

If the negative criticism was unnecessary to the conversation you were having with your administrator, they should have removed it. If I'm forwarding that conversation on, I would certainly delete it.

[Jessie_K]

I usually edit or delete the messages below.  This can include content not suitable for forwarding and/or the email addresses of the people who sent it.

I also try to streamline for reading purposes and delete extra line breaks or formatting extras.

I know too many people who blindly forwarded the wrong thing to the wrong person this way.

[On_Headset]

Don't forget that, while most of us have fantastic modern email clients which know how to parse those massive forward-trees, there are still people who find information in that format to be essentially unusable because their software or backend simply can't parse it properly.


Viz:
>>>>>>>>>> So what I'm saying is
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> How readable is this
>>>>>>>>> RE: OBNOXIOUSLY LONG FORWARDING TREES
>>>>>>>>>>>>> When the line breaks are all
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Supposed to simply
>>>>>>>>> Love, Amanda Dee
>>>>>>>>>>> And somehow you're
>>>>>>>>> FWD: PURPLE MONKEY DISHWASTER
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>know which lines belong to
>>>>>>>>> ~*Reach for the Moon and you'll Always Land Among the Starzzzz *~
>>>> which messages.

[On_Headset]

As an update of sorts, we just had someone file a grievance because someone higher-up an email chain was careless and didn't excise remarks concerning the person in question, and they subsequently found their way into that person's inbox through this method. (The initial emails were between management discussing this person's conduct and performance, and the conversation continued and continued, and eventually someone was told "Okay, we need to send an email to Person X encouraging them to improve X, Y and Z", and so one was written--but the author of this message was careless and didn't bother excising the earlier discussions from this new message.)

Clear your email trees, guys. It's the right thing to do. If you MUST MUST MUST keep your conversations in a single place, get a gmail account.