Sponsor's Message

For what seems like an immeasurably small amount of money, we can send messages around the world, even including pictures sound and video if we so choose.

However there is a problem.

I refer to the infuriating trend for some organisations to simply ignore the email they receive.

Last week I mentioned that, despite the assurances on their website, Vodafone NZ had failed to respond to my query regarding their prepay roaming service -- but they're just one of many organisations that seem to ignore the public.

LATE UPDATE: Guess what? Vodafone have responded to my email. Full marks for actually responding, demerits for tardiness. Their response is in the reader's feedback for today

This "don't bother us" attitude was never more apparent than a month or so ago when I emailed the FBI using this form to let them know that I was about to embark on my $5K cruise missile project. I asked them to please contact me if they had any concerns and mentioned that I was more than happy to cooperate with any suggestions they might like to make.

Likewise, I emailed the US Defense Department's LCCMD programme with the same basic advisory and request for input.

The FBI's system responded with an automated reply thanking me for my communication -- but that's it.

Given the total lack of response to my emails, I was somewhat surprised therefore to hear that the US Defense department was "unhappy with the project" and that they considered my website to be "most unhelpful" -- as reported in this story.

Come on folks -- do you simply shred your incoming email without reading it for security purposes perhaps??

Okay, so when some guy from down-under emails you with claims that he's building a cruise missile in his garage it might be tempting to dismiss him as a kook -- but in these times of heightened terrorist activities, can you really afford not to check out the bonafides of such an email?

If, as they claim, the USDOD is really concerned about this project, why didn't they reply to my email and express those concerns directly to me?

And why now, given the huge amount of international coverage and the obvious concerns they've publicly expressed, have I still not received any reply to those emails?

Yes folks, it seems that "ignoremail" really is the low-effort messaging medium of the future.

If any Aardvark readers have an opinion on today's column or want to add something you're also invited to chip in and have your say.

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