A succinct email in just a subject line(rubenerd.com)
rubenerd.com
A succinct email in just a subject line
https://rubenerd.com/a-succinct-email-in-just-a-subject-line/
50 comments
Oh man; working at Jane Street taught me about these.
My manager at the time would send these when he was busy (which was often). I thought it was brilliant.
I still do this today, 10 years later, usually when I can't just DM them in some way. This happens A LOT as a consultant or consultant-adjacent persona. You're interacting with a client or customer, but aren't in their messaging platform because you haven't/won't be onboarded.
It works extremely well with inbox zero as well. I've been inbox zero for almost 20 years. My inbox is a to-do list; anything that doesn't require action gets deleted or archived. An `/eom` email means I can read the whole thing in a phone notification and bin it right then and there. One fewer hop.
My manager at the time would send these when he was busy (which was often). I thought it was brilliant.
I still do this today, 10 years later, usually when I can't just DM them in some way. This happens A LOT as a consultant or consultant-adjacent persona. You're interacting with a client or customer, but aren't in their messaging platform because you haven't/won't be onboarded.
It works extremely well with inbox zero as well. I've been inbox zero for almost 20 years. My inbox is a to-do list; anything that doesn't require action gets deleted or archived. An `/eom` email means I can read the whole thing in a phone notification and bin it right then and there. One fewer hop.
Ive been in EOM places. It's a helpful tool.
Usually these kind of messages go better in chats though, so I haven't found myself missing the format.
Usually these kind of messages go better in chats though, so I haven't found myself missing the format.
Former secretary sent me EOM mails, not sure where she picked it up. She is fantastic, and very effective in keeping the organisational fallout in check. I had reasons to leave the place but now I have to survive without her.
I thought the notation in Usenet was to end the title in (nt) for no text
Further proof to me that slack + a daily digest for each department is the perfect medium for professional communications inside technical organization.
Slack just seems so clunky to me, after years of using Telegram. Feels more like a knock-off Discord. Just me?
You must have not been around long :)
Slack is an improved irc and so is Discord now, in spite of it launching as a better and free teamspeak...
Slack has better support for people working together on something, Discord has better support for memes and emoji and stuff like that.
Slack is an improved irc and so is Discord now, in spite of it launching as a better and free teamspeak...
Slack has better support for people working together on something, Discord has better support for memes and emoji and stuff like that.
My point is that Telegram does the same things, but is much, much more polished.
If I reply to a message on Telegram, the original message is summarised and linked. Slack starts a weird new "thread" which hides the subsequent conversation in a difficult to access backwater.
If I want to edit a published message on Telegram, it's right there in the context menu. On Slack I have to do a complicated dance... hover over the message so that a hamburger menu appears, click on the menu, then click on the edit option. Click-drag just doesn't work.
If I want to search through message history on Telegram I click the search icon, type my search term and there are my search results. On Slack, again it's hidden behind a different hamburger menu. More click-click-click, and eventually I see my results, obscuring the current conversation! But not all of the results are there, apparently you have to pay for that.
Reactions are hidden behind a clunky hover-click-click interface.
...I could go on and on. It all kind of works, but it feels unfinished, like it's a prototype that's been bashed out in a weekend. Or it feels like a clunky web-app a-la Discord.
If I reply to a message on Telegram, the original message is summarised and linked. Slack starts a weird new "thread" which hides the subsequent conversation in a difficult to access backwater.
If I want to edit a published message on Telegram, it's right there in the context menu. On Slack I have to do a complicated dance... hover over the message so that a hamburger menu appears, click on the menu, then click on the edit option. Click-drag just doesn't work.
If I want to search through message history on Telegram I click the search icon, type my search term and there are my search results. On Slack, again it's hidden behind a different hamburger menu. More click-click-click, and eventually I see my results, obscuring the current conversation! But not all of the results are there, apparently you have to pay for that.
Reactions are hidden behind a clunky hover-click-click interface.
...I could go on and on. It all kind of works, but it feels unfinished, like it's a prototype that's been bashed out in a weekend. Or it feels like a clunky web-app a-la Discord.
Threads are idiotic on slack, agreed. I just ignore them and manually snip the line i'm replying to, prefix it with > and write my reply below.
What do you do on Telegram when you want to post 2 pages of logs? Slack has this "text snippet" feature that can take a long text and post it collapsed by default, and whoever wants to see the details can expand it inline or save.
Can you pin a message to a Telegram channel, to have reference info handy?
Can you upload large files to Telegram and have them available 2 years later? (On the paid version of Slack).
Do you have a Telegram git or github integration plugin that will automatically notify about the commits in the project's channel?
They don't do the same things and your use case is not Slack's.
> Or it feels like a clunky web-app a-la Discord.
You're saying Telegram clients are native apps? I strongly doubt it :)
What do you do on Telegram when you want to post 2 pages of logs? Slack has this "text snippet" feature that can take a long text and post it collapsed by default, and whoever wants to see the details can expand it inline or save.
Can you pin a message to a Telegram channel, to have reference info handy?
Can you upload large files to Telegram and have them available 2 years later? (On the paid version of Slack).
Do you have a Telegram git or github integration plugin that will automatically notify about the commits in the project's channel?
They don't do the same things and your use case is not Slack's.
> Or it feels like a clunky web-app a-la Discord.
You're saying Telegram clients are native apps? I strongly doubt it :)
Isn't Discord a knock-off Slack but for gamers?
I'd definitely bucket Telegram and Discord together (one as IM, other as this... Slack-like thing, I really don't have a better name for this category) - in that both are ridiculously overstimulating, with stickers and animations, and shit constantly moving or notifying you or ... my brain can't handle prolonged exposure to either, it's just too much stimulation (and not of the useful kind).
I'd definitely bucket Telegram and Discord together (one as IM, other as this... Slack-like thing, I really don't have a better name for this category) - in that both are ridiculously overstimulating, with stickers and animations, and shit constantly moving or notifying you or ... my brain can't handle prolonged exposure to either, it's just too much stimulation (and not of the useful kind).
Slack is Discord for corporations pretty much.
Discord has integrations for self-hosted game servers and RPG rules etc.
Slack has integrations for Linear, Github, Google Docs etc. Corporate stuff.
Discord has integrations for self-hosted game servers and RPG rules etc.
Slack has integrations for Linear, Github, Google Docs etc. Corporate stuff.
Do you mean a daily digest of Slack comms?
No, just a daily brief from section leaders.
I’m sure there’s slack plugins for what you’re suggesting, though. Not sure how useful it’d be since most big ticket items would be in the brief each day and the smaller ephemeral stuff gets resolved with slack messages or chats.
I’m sure there’s slack plugins for what you’re suggesting, though. Not sure how useful it’d be since most big ticket items would be in the brief each day and the smaller ephemeral stuff gets resolved with slack messages or chats.
Ai could do it
I’ve been using <EOM> in subject for a while. I seem to recall picking it up sometime while working at Google.
My wife hates those with burning passion. I used it exactly once and then learned not to.
Part of the reason is that people doing it don't put EOM to terminate the title. But the other part is that MUAs love to truncate the subject line for display because "UX", and the most popular ones (like GMail web interface, or Outlook) are janky - so in the end, what happens is, you have to open that email anyway, and then you see just signature with nothing above, and the obvious first thought is, "that stupid email client broke again", followed by "or the sender accidentally clicked 'send' before writing the message", both of which are much more likely than someone using subject-line-only message.
Doesn't also help that most normies can't communicate to save their lives, so the title is gibberish and full of typos. There's a minimum volume of text you need to error-correct that, and subject line alone isn't enough.
Part of the reason is that people doing it don't put EOM to terminate the title. But the other part is that MUAs love to truncate the subject line for display because "UX", and the most popular ones (like GMail web interface, or Outlook) are janky - so in the end, what happens is, you have to open that email anyway, and then you see just signature with nothing above, and the obvious first thought is, "that stupid email client broke again", followed by "or the sender accidentally clicked 'send' before writing the message", both of which are much more likely than someone using subject-line-only message.
Doesn't also help that most normies can't communicate to save their lives, so the title is gibberish and full of typos. There's a minimum volume of text you need to error-correct that, and subject line alone isn't enough.
In my company, it's somewhat common to use "SO:" at the front of the subject, meaning "Subject only". This would address your point about MUAs truncating the subject and work just as well.
Maybe it would be helpful to put "SO means 'subject only'" or something in the body, which could be automated, to further decrease confusion.
Maybe it would be helpful to put "SO means 'subject only'" or something in the body, which could be automated, to further decrease confusion.
Are you talking about English-native people when you mean normies? Is the whole world plagued by gibberish, meandering sentences and ghosting?
Native English speaker here.
The number of times I’ve returned to a message I’ve left in a slack/forum thread to find typos, missing words etc is embarrassing.
I can’t imagine my emails would be any better.
The number of times I’ve returned to a message I’ve left in a slack/forum thread to find typos, missing words etc is embarrassing.
I can’t imagine my emails would be any better.
If they do, then I would agree with them.
I'm talking about English-natives, ESL, and Polish people, as my experience is limited to the languages I can read well enough to tell what's typo or careless writing (or autocorrect on the phone + not giving a frak).
Extrapolating from the Internet experience, however, I believe it's likely the whole world is plagued by gibberish. Stuff like, to use a recent real example, "hey i dont see your emails in orgs SENT AILFOX", which I was asked by the recipient to translate to real language, and which turned out to mean "Hey, so I am an impatient idiot and couldn't wait 15 seconds for our janky SaaS mail interface to load before shooting you a passive-aggressive message".
(Whenever I start thinking too many good thoughts about humanity and people in general, I get shown stuff like this to be reminded that niceness and good communication exist only in sci-fi shows.)
I'm not sure what you mean by "ghosting" in this context, but if you mean the situation where you ask more that one question in your message, and the recipient silently ignores all of them except the least important one, then yes, that's something I witnessed in both Polish and English from people from all around the world. I assume it generalizes too.
As for meandering sentences, that's a different subject to being careless and not giving a frak - but there's a reason summarization is one of the most popular uses of LLMs.
Extrapolating from the Internet experience, however, I believe it's likely the whole world is plagued by gibberish. Stuff like, to use a recent real example, "hey i dont see your emails in orgs SENT AILFOX", which I was asked by the recipient to translate to real language, and which turned out to mean "Hey, so I am an impatient idiot and couldn't wait 15 seconds for our janky SaaS mail interface to load before shooting you a passive-aggressive message".
(Whenever I start thinking too many good thoughts about humanity and people in general, I get shown stuff like this to be reminded that niceness and good communication exist only in sci-fi shows.)
I'm not sure what you mean by "ghosting" in this context, but if you mean the situation where you ask more that one question in your message, and the recipient silently ignores all of them except the least important one, then yes, that's something I witnessed in both Polish and English from people from all around the world. I assume it generalizes too.
As for meandering sentences, that's a different subject to being careless and not giving a frak - but there's a reason summarization is one of the most popular uses of LLMs.
hey yea many speak like this yea no time 4 books apols
By this, they mean, “Hello. Many people write like they speak, not in a lengthy way. It happens due to a lack of time, do you agree? Nevertheless, I apologize.”
Then again, it's still extremely poor communication whether they put it in an email subject or body.
By this, they mean, “Hello. Many people write like they speak, not in a lengthy way. It happens due to a lack of time, do you agree? Nevertheless, I apologize.”
Then again, it's still extremely poor communication whether they put it in an email subject or body.
I'm not that picky. I'm okay with missing punctuation, or not capitalizing the start of sentence, and such - I write like this myself all the time, though on IMs specifically (where it used to be common to press <enter> at the end of a thought, not at the end of a sentence). I'm okay with occasional typo.
I'm not okay with text that's hard to impossible to parse due to the sheer volume of errors. And I'm not okay with lack of care behind sending "write-only" messages. Surely, if the sender read what they wrote, they'd realize that "yea no tim 3 bokS APSL" is not comprehensible. It's merely decodable, with significant effort.
(Notice the difference between your example and mine is that yours lacks the distinctive set of typos/errors made by someone who types on a phone, badly. In fact, guessing what kind of device one uses is helpful - but sometimes insufficient - in decoding the gibberish :).)
I'm not okay with text that's hard to impossible to parse due to the sheer volume of errors. And I'm not okay with lack of care behind sending "write-only" messages. Surely, if the sender read what they wrote, they'd realize that "yea no tim 3 bokS APSL" is not comprehensible. It's merely decodable, with significant effort.
(Notice the difference between your example and mine is that yours lacks the distinctive set of typos/errors made by someone who types on a phone, badly. In fact, guessing what kind of device one uses is helpful - but sometimes insufficient - in decoding the gibberish :).)
Even if the spelling is on point, often, it's hard for me to understand what they mean. Like that books to them in that context means “writing volumes”. I'm not picky either, but language stops serving the purpose of communication when there is no apparent message in the words, doesn't it?
If the spelling is wrong, there's almost no communication taking place at all, jus gibberish, as you say.
If the spelling is wrong, there's almost no communication taking place at all, jus gibberish, as you say.
Works fine if you copy the subject line into the body too
My Outlook at work shows the first line of the body alongside the subject, and adds <EOM> if the entire message fits in that preview line.
This seems as good as or better than having people add the "<eom>" marker manually, because it doesn't rely on people remembering it and because it knows exactly how much text can be displayed in my current view.
I've never spent time customizing this client, so I assumed this was a default setting, but nobody else is mentioning this so maybe it's not? Maybe my company's IT team added this or enabled a setting. Or maybe every enterprise company has this but all the others encourage adding dozens of lines of nonsense "signature" boilerplate and disclaimers, so nobody gets the benefit of the feature.
This seems as good as or better than having people add the "<eom>" marker manually, because it doesn't rely on people remembering it and because it knows exactly how much text can be displayed in my current view.
I've never spent time customizing this client, so I assumed this was a default setting, but nobody else is mentioning this so maybe it's not? Maybe my company's IT team added this or enabled a setting. Or maybe every enterprise company has this but all the others encourage adding dozens of lines of nonsense "signature" boilerplate and disclaimers, so nobody gets the benefit of the feature.
> Or maybe every enterprise company has this but all the others encourage adding dozens of lines of nonsense "signature" boilerplate and disclaimers, so nobody gets the benefit of the feature.
If you don't use a signature yourself, then I'd assume it's most likely this. Every company I've seen or been a part of does indeed "encourage adding dozens of lines of nonsense "signature" boilerplate and disclaimers".
If you don't use a signature yourself, then I'd assume it's most likely this. Every company I've seen or been a part of does indeed "encourage adding dozens of lines of nonsense "signature" boilerplate and disclaimers".
In German language (kwT) remains reasonably common. "kein weiterer Text" = no further content. Often still duplicated in the body, because people read their messages on all sorts of funny devices / in all sorts of funny clients.
Even better than any such marker: Rearranging so the acronym (e.g. LGTM, NAK, ASAP) or greeting/valediction is the last word, ticking off both the formalities and the EOM marker simultaneously.
Even better than any such marker: Rearranging so the acronym (e.g. LGTM, NAK, ASAP) or greeting/valediction is the last word, ticking off both the formalities and the EOM marker simultaneously.
Psa.
Title can be viewed by more admin roles than content.
Title can be viewed by more admin roles than content.
I prefer this.
https://tron.fandom.com/wiki/End_of_Line
"End of Line" in Tron still gives me chills.
https://tron.fandom.com/wiki/End_of_Line
"End of Line" in Tron still gives me chills.
Oh, so that's where this came from.
From your link:
> In the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series, the Cylon Hybrids often use this phrase when reciting system information about the Base-Ships.
I learned it as a specific phrase from that show, and its use there is chills-inducing too.
From your link:
> In the reimagined Battlestar Galactica television series, the Cylon Hybrids often use this phrase when reciting system information about the Base-Ships.
I learned it as a specific phrase from that show, and its use there is chills-inducing too.
I had the same thought.
Such great films.
Such great films.
I'll be opening your email anyway so my client marks it as read. So this saves me literally zero time.
I always found these incredibly rude, in my experience it's typically senior management, and specifically those who like to really make you feel like a nameless "human resource"
Though I haven't seen it in recent years with (better) workplace messaging platform, like Slack
Though I haven't seen it in recent years with (better) workplace messaging platform, like Slack
This is a great reminder of a simple email trick! Using (EOM) in the subject line could save time, especially for teams dealing with tons of emails. But yeah, if people aren’t used to it, they might just get confused. Maybe it’s worth bringing back? Also, crazy to think 2005 was 20 years ago—time flies...
In the modern world, if you don't add anything in the body you may end up in spam.
Personally i put "Subject says it all" in the body if I have a one phrase message to send.
Personally i put "Subject says it all" in the body if I have a one phrase message to send.
[deleted]
What about spam filtering? Wouldn't these emails (especially cross-domain) be more likely picked up as spam?
I tried doing this at work, including adding end-of-message markers to the subject line. No one got it. Now I just copy and paste the subject line into the message body.
Another old-school habit no one gets anymore is subject references, e.g., 'subject: "Project X status report", body: "Fred, we need to submit subj by noon, are you done with it? Can't find it in the usual place. Bob"'
Another old-school habit no one gets anymore is subject references, e.g., 'subject: "Project X status report", body: "Fred, we need to submit subj by noon, are you done with it? Can't find it in the usual place. Bob"'
I received one when I asked for a quote after I didn’t respond for 24 hours with “What do you think of the price??”
I went for the competitor
I went for the competitor
Early on, maybe before instant messaging and before graphical mail clients with preview windows, people often used subject lines as the main message. The one I remember was "NT" at the end of the message to mean "No Text".
Turns out there's a bunch more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_email_subject_abbrevia...
Turns out there's a bunch more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_email_subject_abbrevia...
I recall reading about this and the end mark was n/m, no message, or n/b, no body.
Above there was a comment suggesting to duplicate the subject in the message body. In which case I think EOM would be appropriate.
Interesting diversity for the same idea.
Above there was a comment suggesting to duplicate the subject in the message body. In which case I think EOM would be appropriate.
Interesting diversity for the same idea.
I demand this on ticket subject - I don't like to have to load the details page to know what exactly ticket is about - subject needs to 100% describe what is going on in a changelog friendly construction. I enter the ticket when I need implementation and other details.
Note that the company is full of seniors and literary nobody does that - I edit almost 100% of ticket subjects. Maybe 1 or 2 people in last 10 years adopted this style and we are talking here about top engineers. Subjects they make are in the form "login error" or "Error 500 when getting bank account", like that describes anything at all (such subjects are 100% useless)
So doing this in the wild is totally innapropriate.
Note that the company is full of seniors and literary nobody does that - I edit almost 100% of ticket subjects. Maybe 1 or 2 people in last 10 years adopted this style and we are talking here about top engineers. Subjects they make are in the form "login error" or "Error 500 when getting bank account", like that describes anything at all (such subjects are 100% useless)
So doing this in the wild is totally innapropriate.
I spent almost 20 years moderating subjects written by others in an online community, and I finally got rid of subjects completely.
Instead, I offered users a text area and generated subjects from the first 80 characters of the body.
With a bit of rule-based cleanup, it worked wonders.
@dang, idea for your overworked self.
Instead, I offered users a text area and generated subjects from the first 80 characters of the body.
With a bit of rule-based cleanup, it worked wonders.
@dang, idea for your overworked self.
I do send one liner emails, but with a blank subject. For most email apps they show up as "George (no subject) - What's your middle name?" or similar.