Today we found out that listservs can be even more terrible than we all thought possible.
The Green Umbrella, a listserv for all of the environmental organizations on campus, sent out an email to the listserv and one student replied all asking to be removed from the emails. Many others followed suit and the listserv quickly turned into a competition for laughs with over 50 emails clogging the inboxes of countless students on campus.
Most of the emails came from one student who later sent out an email explaining that her computer was hacked:
Hi everyone,
So sorry. I left my laptop out while I was in the library and it appears my friends had some fun while I was gone. No more emails from me! This is the last one I promise.
Sorry again
Update: Green Umbrella sent out an apologetic email, with the subject line "Keep Calm and Carry On:"
As most of you have probably noticed by now, we've been experiencing some technical difficulties with our listserv this evening. To make a long story short, one of the account settings was accidentally and unknowingly changed in the process of sending out yesterday's newsletter. That setting kept emails from being sent to the entire listserv without moderator (i.e. our) approval. When switched off, chaos ensues. It took us a while before we could figure out what happened.
We deeply apologize for the annoyance and/or frustration this may have caused you tonight. We hope you do not choose to unsubscribe from our weekly newsletter as a result of this incident, and we assure you that this will not happen again. We will continue to send you only relevant information on all the green goings-on in and around the Columbia community.
Here are just some of the highlights of the brouhaha that graced a few too many inboxes:
When everyone on the thread decided tonight was Open Mic Night and they were stand-up comedians
- "does anyone wanna do a movie night?"
- "i heard there's a floor party on furnald"
- "I really have to go to the bathroom. Where is the bathroom in the library anyone?"
