No, you got me wrong. I get it - you hate these things. Its your compulsion to ruin everyone else's fun by posting wet-blanket pedantic diatribes against them that makes it a "precious fusspot" moment.

Be honest - the email subject told you everything you wanted to know - you didn't spend any time at all reading the crap - you just have to vent about it.

As a veteran venter I have been in that boat. Been a 'precious fusspot' myself more than once. Man enough to admit it.

>Be honest - the email subject told you everything you wanted to know...

From what I can tell by searching around, the actual subject title of this email is "CD Baby Loves you", not "CD Baby order shipped", so one does have to read this email to find out what it means.

However, let's assume that the title did say that the order shipped. One still has to look in the email to see if every ordered item shipped, or whether any of them are backordered, or arriving in multiple shipments. Maybe a person placed two orders at the same time -- which one shipped?

Let's assume a person only ordered one cd. Ey still has to read the entire thing, because maybe there's some content in it that ey need to act on (e.g., the wrong shipping address, or the wrong charge amount). If that was the case, and someone didn't read the email, whose fault would it be when the mistake was found out later? Everyone laughs when people don't read a software EULA that promises the creator the user's soul, saying "well, people should have read the EULA". How much would the cd buyer be blamed if ey was charged double and didn't find out about it until a month later, when eir credit card statement came in? "Well, it was in your order confirmation; you should have read it."

And arguing that the CDBaby order confirmation doesn't contain the price, and it contains the address at the top, so my argument doesn't apply is not the issue. How do you know there's no data requiring action in the text unless you read it?

Because its whimsical nonsense.

Exactly, and it wastes my time trying to work out what it means, rather than letting me get on with things that are more important, more fun, and more rewarding.

I'm not complaining that it's whimsical nonsense, I'm complaining that it's whimsical nonsense that other people insist I should find fun, and then they force it on me whether I want it or not.

I'm 50. I'm no longer a teenager, so I no longer know everything. My life is half over. Please, let me choose where I find my fun.

And GET OFF MY LAWN!

How did you determine it was whimsical nonsense, and only whimsical nonsense that did not contain anything that needed to be acted on? Were you able to do so without reading it?

>> precious fusspot > Thank you for that neat, clear and concise evaluation of my personality. Note that I didn't include "accurate".

> My reply to that basically covers your comment, so I thought I'd include it here ... > If it had been me receiving that email I'd've resented the 30 seconds it took to check that its content was "CD posted",

Sounds like you'll spend a lot of time whining about 30 seconds you didn't actually lose...and do it again when the same thread comes up again on HN.

"precious fusspot" sounds accurate:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/precious 4. affectedly or excessively delicate

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/fusspot Brit informal a person who fusses unnecessarily

kb

"Sounds like you'll spend a lot of time whining about 30 seconds you didn't actually lose"

I'm sure that there is a business owner that is glad to have his perspective on this. It could save them from annoying their customers with cutesy emails. That is one of the benefits of HN, to which RiderOfGiraffes is contributing. Consider that before you level insults at him.

I'm choosing to spend time trying to save other people time, and giving them a gift of an alternative viewpoint.

That's my choice to make - it's one of the ways I try to make the world better.

Besides, I type really fast.

(now see if you can work out when I'm being sarcastic, and when I'm being genuine.)

Versus making the world better with a little whimsy?

Both take 30 seconds to read. Both are essentially a waste of time. I guess we might argue somebody, somewhere finds diatribe engaging. Whimsy also has its audience, witness the gentle soul who made the original post.

Look, let's just agree to disagree. You find it whimsical and gently amusing. I find it an infuriating waste of my time and about as funny as a whoopee cushion. I've made my case, you've made yours. I claim that doing this will needlessly annoy paying customers. You think it doesn't matter.

Now I really won't waste any more time on it.

No no, both keep going... I'm getting popcorn.