How ‘non-delivery’ fails to deliver

Richi Jennings of Ferris Research raises an interesting point about the utility of non-delivery notices for the casual e-mail user:

“Here’s another insight from an ‘unsophisticated’ e-mail user. We think this is interesting feedback for vendors of e-mail clients. It might appear trivial to e-mail cognoscenti like us, but it’s an important human factors observation. It’s an area where we as an industry can do a better job.

 

“In a panicked phone call, ‘my’ user told me that he’d sent an important e-mail message to three people. But he’d mistyped one of the addresses and got a non-delivery message back. His question to me was:

 

” ‘Did the other two people get my message?’ “

 

“Of course, I told him that, yes, they did. But now that I come to think about it, why should that be obvious to him?”

Seems like that one ought to be solvable, no?

And then there’s the matter of so many spammers using non-delivery notices to cloak their junk. Sure, we all can recognize the real from the fake at a glance and simply delete the fake. But the casual user? Must be maddening.