Glitch in Email ListServ Makes for Greatest Labor Day Weekend Ever!

A glitch in an email listserv created to keep Somerville residents informed about Green Line news created one of the most hilarious or annoying...depending on who you ask...email exchange I have ever been personally included on! Green Line update: it's not here yet.

It began early on Saturday morning with one person asking to be removed off of the listserv that features a subject line prefix of [Greenlineextension]. This one email would spark over 100 responses that included everything from expletive-laced tirades about the amount of emails they were receiving finally ending with the creation of a Facebook Page called Unsubscribe Me! where all can reminisce about the amazing Labor Day weekend we had as a result of one sent email. Oh, and there was an invitation to a BBQ featuring gnome bowling and steak.


Here are a few of my favorite excerpts from the exchange in no particular order...

• "Hi, How do I unsubscribe from this list? Thanks!" Editor's note: this started it all.
• "Seriously, I'm pissed that I unsubscribed and it won't take effect for a bit....this crap needs to stop. I subscribed FOR green line info, I don't care about anything else. Please stop this stupid random thread. No.one.cares."
• "Welcome, need anything from the grill?"
• "Sorry I'm late guys, any hot dogs left?"
• "I have two steaks left. One strip and one rib eye. With a side of unsubscribe."
• "Guys. This is getting ridiculous. There are no hot dogs left. We only have alfresco sausages and tofu pops, OK? Ugh."
• "Just had to say this: I'm temporarily based in Denver until the election, and there's no way a hilarious, snarky, awesome email chain would ever last this long here where everyone spends their Saturdays "outdoors". GOD I miss Cambridge/Somerville! Best. Town. Ever"
• "This is hilarious. I think I joined this for info on a NE revolution soccer stadium in somerville that was proposed as part of the GL extension that never happened. I take the green line now from allston and would suggest you try and get the orange line to Somerville instead of green. It sucks. Orange is the best of the mbta."
• "Please subscribe me twice, then unsubscribe one of them. Then add it back."
• "The state DOT has just announced that if 10,000 people reply-all to this email list regarding unsubscribe requests by October 1, they will expedite Green Line Extension work and have the Union Square station open by August 2013."
• "Has anyone considered setting up a mailing list where people could learn about & discuss the Green Line Extension, instead of coping with Mailman usage questions?"
• "Damn, I hope this at least gets a mention on the somervillenews.com or something. This has provided me hours of entertainment."
• "It's been fun. Btw, I'm 39 swm, liberal, like Chomsky, Tolle, House, going to school to be an NP. Lemme know if you want to meet up."
• "Hi Tim and Andy!" 
• "Hi Courtney"
• "Hi Courties!"
• "Can you please take me off this list. why am i getting hundreds of emails from people i don't know???"
• "you are all douchebags."
• "Green line extension is a lofty goal for the T. They can't even seem to manage the trains they do have let alone keep them on time. In fact I bet the original person who replied all probably works for the T." 
• "Nothing since 8:07 people...come on....we can do better than this! No one else wants to send a futile unsubscribe email. Son...I am disappoint." 
• "Something about Kensington Olympia on a Tube map always makes me think of Union Square...ps - My wife says we all have too much time on our hands. :-) 
• "hey i'm in london. can we get the green line to extend here? there are flash mobs" 
• "Somerville, Keeping it real as usual! Mayor Joe would be proud." 
• "I FOLLOWED THE [expletive] INSTRUCTIONS AND i'M STILL GETTING THIS [expletive] BULL[expletive]. WHY THE [expletive] DID YOU PUT ME ON THIS [expletive] LIST IN THE [expletive] FIRST PLACE? YOU MADE ME [expletive] SWEAR ON A SUNDAY."

Of course, all good things have to come to and end...and it did on Sunday morning when the issue was resolved and everyone was informed and apologized to on Monday VIA EMAIL: "On Sat., Sept. 1, the long-existing moderator control settings and block on the Reply All function for this list failed. For this reason, 141 user-generated messages to the full list were sent to all list members without our approval. The block has been restored, and we are investigating the cause of this issue. You will receive no more messages from users. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience. Thank you for your understanding and patience."