Tuesday, November 10, 2009

New Experiments in Nomenclature

Today I tried to use my database to send out emails to the 1000+ students enrolled in College Algebra. I'm not sure how many actually got sent out, as I got a cryptic error message. I had my address in the mix as record #1, so I know that at least one email went out. I'm thinking that next time I should add a different one of my email addresses as the last record so that I can tell if FileMaker Pro just gave up mid-way through.

When it prompted me for the SMTP settings, I set the from name as "Math Department" but with my email address. I signed the email Dr. Hirta (for the math department). Nowhere in the email that I sent out has my full name in it.

Assuming that this email got sent at all, how many of the responses do you think will be addressed to Dr. Hirta? What about Mrs. Hirta? Mr. Hirta?