… It’s that time again for the Friday Forum. And you’re in for a treat – it’s about EMAIL! So you get to learn all the little dirty secrets that I have about my email usage and activities.

Well, maybe not *all* of them...

1) When you write an e-mail, do you usually use correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.? Or do you prefer to type a "stream of consciousness" message and not worry so much about the technical stuff? Do you spellcheck your e-mails?

I try and make sure that all of my written communications have proper grammar, punctuation, syntax and spelling. Of course, I do ignore the rule about how you’re not supposed to start sentences with conjunctions and the like. The spellchecker automatically runs on my emails because I use Word as the email editor, and I have the spellchecker set as a default.

Emails that originate from me, like much of my writing, tends to go in a slightly linear style, with a little mental leapfrog thrown in for good effort. So, it’s a stream of consciousness that logically leads from one place to another with a little insanity thrown in for good measure.

Ones that I’m responding to tend to stay directly on the subject at hand, unless I have something really important or interesting that I want to share, and I tend to tack that on at the end of the communication as a “by the way…”

2) Do you typically use emoticons/smileys and words like "LOL" or "TTYL" in your e-mail messages? What fonts/colors do you normally use, or do you use e-mail stationery? Do you use an e-mail signature?

I don’t use a lot of internet shorthand in my emails. Smileys, once in a while. I still view email as a substitute for a written letter, and I certainly wouldn’t put that sort of stuff in a written letter (well, maybe a smiley face). Most of the internet shorthand is left for IM’s and chatting where it’s more useful since that’s a faster interchange between people and just makes life a little easier at times.

I don’t tend to change around my fonts or colors because basic blank Century Gothic is just easier to read for everyone. Same goes for e-mail stationary – sometimes it comes through as a background to emails, and sometimes it comes through as an attachment – why should I weigh down or slow down someone’s email download/servers because I want things to look pretty?

I don’t use a sig on my emails, but I do on my posts on the BBs… sometimes.

3) How many e-mail accounts do you have, and how often do you check them? About how many messages do you receive per day, and are you good about keeping up with e-mail correspondence? Would you call yourself an "e-mail junkie"?

Do you really want to know how many email accounts I have? Let’s see… Netscape, Earthlink, Google (Gmail), Yahoo, Hotmail, work, my personal domain… let’s just say there are an even dozen and leave it at that because I don’t want to try and remember where else I have an email account. I don’t check them all that often, though, except the work email (because I have to) and my personal domain. Most of the others are spam gatherers with the exception of the Gmail accounts, so I couldn’t possibly begin to estimate how many messages I receive a day. At work it’s on the upwards of 200+ but a lot of that is spam that gets filtered and sent to a special folder, and it usually comes in the middle of the night.

Email junkie? With a dozen accounts how could I *not* be?

4) Do you subscribe to any e-mail lists, groups, message boards, forums, etc.? Why did you decide to join them? Have you made lots of close friends through these groups? Do you post regularly?

Oh boy… the big question. I do subscribe to a couple of email lists/groups, but most of those I have the messages suppressed so that I have to go to the group to read them, or I have them send in a digest once a day so I can skim them quickly and move on. A great many of those I don’t post to, I just lurk there.

I can say the same about message boards. There’s a great many that I visit that I don’t say anything at – mostly because I don’t have anything to contribute that’s worth saying, and in a couple of cases I don’t want to contribute anything because of past statements being thrown back at me as if I had no right to be there. Yes, I know I have every right to post, I’m just choosing not to exercise it. I think it makes a lot of people happier and more comfortable that way. (Yes, there’s that “she worries too much about what other people think” thing coming out again, but this time it’s worrying about what they think BEFORE I do anything instead of AFTER which is my usual mode of operation.

I can almost always be found on The Wagon and randomly at the Rotation BB, with minor random appearances over at the TWBB and the Mirabilia board. Those are the places I feel most comfortable these days and I have quite a few friends on The Wagon (which is where I post the most frequently if I’m posting at all) – some are close, some are not. Some have gotten closer since the membership of the Wagon has increased over the last few months…(and no, I’m not naming names)

5) Who is the most recent person you've e-mailed? What was the topic of your message? What is the most recent e-mail that you've received? What e-mail program do you use?

Most recent *people* I’ve emailed as of this writing are too numerous to mention (since it’s an email group that trades mail quickly). The most recent email I’ve received is a piece of spam (icky).

I use Outlook for almost everything that I can – yes, it’s MicroSnarft, but it’s multifunctional and it doesn’t break. At least not for me.

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Well, folks, that’s it for me today. I hope you have a great weekend.