In the last 4 days I have received letters recopied from the FML and sent
out in mass mailings from SIX (6!) different people.  Because of one week
when this sort of thing got REALLY out of hand and the original mails and
replies mounted into the hundreds I am no longer treating this as a benign
situation.  There are people who ask my help, when I am able to give it,
with ferret problems that I have encountered through the years; when I have
to wade through piles of repeats and replies of shock I sometimes DON'T
have time to get to all my mail on the same day.  That makes me feel very
guilty when there is someone I could have reassured or whose life I might
have made easier with a little trick like a different way to give a
medication.  I do read the FML, but I have just so much time to do what
little bit I am able to do to help anyone else.  There are many times that
I wish I had the time to send out sympathy notes or help with a small
problem.  Sometimes I would have liked to reassure someone dealing with a
large problem because we have seen that it is not always insurmountable.
Often my time just gets wasted away by these mass mailings and I can't do
much of anything.  If I sound frustrated to tears by this it's because I
am.  Two of the people involved are individuals who try to track down
additional information, but the rest have just copied down letters and
multiple addresses and then sent them out.  It's not a constructive
exercise to send mail to people who have already received it, especially
when the mailings themselves reduce the time any recipient has to tackle
issues.  Please, reconsider the approach.
 
Sukie
[Posted in FML issue 2494]