Outlook Invite Spam

I don't think this is evil enough to make it into my Internet Axis of Evil (bottom left sidebar) but I am getting totally fed up with getting outlook invite spam.

I am sure that most people that send these invites think they are doing a good thing. But they are not. Because inviting me to an event that I have no intention of attending but gets into my calendar unless I take the extra step to decline it is worse than spam. I can ignore spam. I have to go one step further to decline outlook invite spam.

And using outlook invites to start the process of scheduling something is equally annoying. I decline because the time doesn't work for me. Then I get another. Which I have to decline again. I'd just ignore them, but then my calendar gets clogged up with meetings I don't intend to go to.

The way to do this is to use regular email to schedule something and once its been agreed upon, send the outlook invite. Sending me one before I've agreed to attend a meeting is bad email etiquette.

This goes into the category of "it makes my life easier so I am going to use it even though it makes your life worse". It joins the practice of having your assistant call me and then put me on hold until you can get off the call you are on. The people who do that to me are sending a signal that their time is more important than mine. And I take notice of that. I would never do something like that. And I would never send outlook email spam either.

Comments

[vc]

It doesn't have to be like this. The reason the initial invites don't work for you is because the meeting organizer can't see your free/busy times. If Outlook were more sophisticated, everyone using it would publish his free/busy to a server that anyone else could check prior to scheduling meetings.

Of course privacy becomes a concern in this sort of environment, but them's just little details.

[Andy Swan]

Because Outlook is a Microsoft product, and you have resolved to remove microsoft from your life in 2007...I believe this should be categorized as an annoying reminder :)

[Jeremy Epstein]

You're right, with 1 exception...Behind the firewall, this system works well. I look at your calendar, make a proposal and if you don't like it, you propose another time or say "not interested".

Good etiquette requires me to say: here's why I want to meet w/you, but by looking at your calendar, I'm actually respecting your time more (assuming you keep your calendar current-which I'm sure you do, Fred!)

I agree, if we all had a central calendar that we actually used (Free/Busy was nice idea, but not adoped), it'd be great. Of course, it wouldn't stop those with whom ou have no desire to meet at all.

[Mo]

I can't believe the last thing about the assistant calling and placing you on hold. That is just plain bad etiquette.

[Sylvain Carle]

That's funny, I was doing a technical due diligence this morning for a company that is trying to solve exactly that problem (easy coordination of meeting arrangements)... From what I saw, they have a killer product.

I am bound by an NDA so I won't say too much about the product but I will surely pass the URL of your post to the team there, they are entering private beta in about a month if you are interested.

[Stephen Bronstein]

I've been using Timebridge for a while to determine meeting times, it integrates with Outlook but also has a web interface for people who don't use outlook. Has worked pretty well to date.

www.timebridge.com

[jackson]

Call a spade a spade - it is evil, and should be regareded as such.

[Stuart Rolland]

Isn't there a setting to tell Outlook not ot put these on your calendar? I use Lotus Notes (Yeah yeah I know you're all laughing) but it doesn't put calendar items in your calendar unless you accept them (or unless you tell Notes to Autoprocess them), I would have thought that was a pretty standard feature people would want. I can see why some others would want it the other way but surely having an option to turn it on or off is the way forward.

[Rob]

Fred,

There are two issues here.

This is foremost a people issue. As you point out it is rude to write an appointment on someone outside of your organizations calendar. Just as it is rude to make someone else wait on hold when you are late for a call or meeting you have scheduled.

A technology timewarp. This capability was built into Schedule+ and then Outlook in a "pre internet" world. Remember these were the days when you couldn't be sure the person you were sending email to would receive/read it. It is reasonable to argue that once the Internet became pervasive, the Outlook and Exchange teams should have pro actively created a more sophisticated mechanism for managing these sorts of capabilities. Today's interconnected world was not the world this capability was designed for 15 years ago.

[Don]

I am a firm NON-user of Outlook due to these kinds of issues, and, as I wrote about in my Ph.D. Dissertation, security issues.

That said, I'm not happy with most of the scheduling applications out there, that allow others to have a bit better idea of your time avialability.

Looking forward to hearing more about this other company that Mo talked about!