Who Does That?

I got an email today, from a girl I didn't know, inviting me to a concert. Strange. And then I looked at the To: and CC: line to see if I knew anyone else on the distribution list. Hmmm... seems I know EVERYONE on the distribution list. These are all the people that *I* invited to a concert last week. Friends from far and wide - old Berkeley friends, a few random co-workers, post college friends, one of my sister's friends, even some of Kyle's friends. Every single one of them was on the distribution list.

Now really, what are the chances that some chick, who I don't even know, would know this exact same group of random people?

So I emailed the chick and said, "Hi! Thanks a million for the concert invite... btw do I know you? And how on earth is it possible that we have the exact same circle of friends when we've never met? Do you actually know any of the people that you emailed?" (Ok, so I was a bit more diplomatic than that, but whatever.)

So she writes back and says "Sorry, I work at the same company as you and I met a few guys who work in your group... they forwarded me some mass emails and I just hit Reply All to one of them... but feel free to come to the concert."

What?

Ummmm, who does that? She sent an email to like 20 people who she's never even met. Most of whom don't even work at our company! Or in our city! And they aren't even friends of the guys that she met - they're *my* friends! So she sent an email to friends of a friend of a friend. (My friends are friends of me and I'm friends with these guys and they are friends with her - I guess.) That is too many degrees of separation if you ask me. And now my friends are like "who is this chick and why is she sending me an email" - and I'm like "I have no idea."

Email etiquette expressly states that the "Reply All" button is to be used sparingly, for critical, everyone-needs-to-know, information... or for (very) witty comebacks. It is NOT to be used to send random emails to strangers.

So chick! Back up off my friends!