Journal: News & Comment

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The "World Would Be a Better Place Without" department

E-mail disclaimers annoy me. You know the ones: "This e-mail is confidential and intended solely for the addressee(s)..." They frequently appear on faxes too, and are often longer than the messages to which they are attached. Every one I have read is a keen example of poor writing.

The Register, one of my favourite tech news sites (its slogan is "Biting the Hand That Feeds I.T."), has just announced the winners of its ridiculous e-mail disclaimer contest.

All the winners are terrible, as such disclaimers essentially must be, but I particularly enjoyed the one with a full Welsh translation -- which is presumably just as obtuse in Welsh. From now on, I insist that people who feel they just must append a disclaimer to their e-mails use this one.

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