What started out as a single e-mail snowballed into a campuswide movement this week, spurring the creation of Facebook groups, YouTube videos, T-shirts, and an inside joke that all of Boston College could appreciate.
The Internet phenomenon began Tuesday night with an innocuous e-mail sent by Genevieve Kimberlin, LSOE '10, requesting housing near BC that would fit in with her boyfriend's schedule.
What can be referred to as nothing other than an unfortunate mistake saw this e-mail forwarded to 13 listservs belonging to various groups, ranging from clubs and organizations to an orientation group to classes to three ResLife listservs.
"When I started typing this e-mail, I thought I could use the listserv to choose individual people I wanted to send the e-mail to within the list. When I realized I couldn't do that, I redrafted the e-mail, but only to my direct contacts. But I was really tired, and sent the wrong e-mail. I had no idea what kind of backlash that would have," Kimberlin said.
The original e-mail, which Kimberlin had no intention of sending, read, "Forgive me for exploiting the many listservs I'm on, but I wanted to reach as many people around BC as possible," and asked students to respond if they had Boston housing available on a flexible basis.
The original e-mail reached only those who belonged to the 13 listservs, but another mistake sent multiple copies of the e-mail to a large portion of campus. Some students received upward of 900 e-mails.
Caitlin Maguire, A&S '10, and her roommate, sent a response to all of the e-mail's original recipients, claiming that a friend did in fact have an extra room available in her off-campus apartment.
"My roommate and I hit 'reply-all' as a joke. We sent out an e-mail saying our friend Lizzie had a room, but she didn't really, which sparked all the replies," Maguire said. "I don't think a lot of people recognized it was us at first, but a few came up to me and said, you were the first to respond. Then, people started hitting 'reply-all' and that's when people started saying 'take me off the list.'"
Spring Break
Kevin Michel
posted 2/11/08 @ 12:58 PM EST
When I graduated in '75, this kind of chaos wasn't even imagined. Now it is a major threat. I have been an IT Manager and business leader for over 25 years, and I have spoken often on the fact that the greatest dangers to the interdependent computer environment is accident, rather than intent. (Continued…)