Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 21:38:33 -0700 From: patrick@Verity.COM (Patrick Horgan)
but the key was not there. Please mail me your key. Thank you.
constructive suggestion as to how this mail could be changed to convey more information or to be less "threatening", please mail me.
Sure, I found the above offensive. It comes across in exactly the same tone as a cop saying, "Please step away from the car."
Ack! ;) Not my intention at all, but a good observation...
The simple change:
but the key was not there. Could you please mail me your key? Thanks.
works miracles:) The tone on the rest of it was nice. You have to be careful with imperatives. They usually sound mean...even with a please at the front.
I got this letter in favor of some change in the wording, and a few letters saying "wording is fine as is". I assume that those who currently have no beef with the wording will not be offended by the added words, thus I have happilly integrated Patrick's suggestion. I have also added to the code a list of people who don't like receiving key-queries, added a test that gives an error if the user attempts to send a key-query to such an address, and made TCM's address the default value for the list. I have also added code to maintain a disk-based list of addresses that have already been mailed for a key, and added code that checks against this list before sending mail. I'll put this latest version of mail-secure.el (also upgraded to work with the latest version of mailcrypt (3.3)) on my web page with in a day or so. Until then, anyone who wants a copy can mail me. To those who sent polite suggestions: thank you. Your constructive criticism has helped make mail-secure.el a better tool. I encourage anyone else who has suggestions or comments to mail me. I try to be responsive to constructive input, as doing so helps the package improve, be accepted and get used. TJIC