A Harvard Student's Guide: Getting Off Email Lists

Harvard students are...not the brightest sometimes. You would think that some of the sharpest minds in the world would be able to figure out how to remove themselves from a mailing list without disturbing the thousands of other poor souls still trapped on the list. Unfortunately, as we have seen today with Harvard Leads 2016, this is an unrealistic expectation.

Here are some examples of what not to do:

1. Reply-all with the subject line: “Please take me off this mailing list.”

By Nian Hu

And thus the floodgates were opened. Thanks for nothing!

2. Try to make friends with other people.

By Nian Hu

This is what Tinder and Bumble were invented for. While we applaud your gregarious nature, we do not appreciate all the notifications you are giving us in your quest for friendship.

3. Be the lone voice of reason...and get ignored immediately.

By Nian Hu

Congratulations, you just told everyone to not respond all to a mailing list by responding all to said mailing list.

4. Try to be funny or cute.

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Just stop.

5. Respond “same” or “take me off this mailing list” a thousand times.

By Nian Hu

Do you realize you are talking to a bot? Please understand that bots are busy entities that are too busy tormenting humans to appease your simple request.

Instead of doing any of the above, why not click unsubscribe or create a Gmail filter? Simply open one of the emails, select “Filter messages like these,” click “Create filter with this search,” and then click “Delete.” Problem solved!

You’re welcome.