Very Short Reply Expected

I think people tend to grossly exaggerate how many emails they really do get. Are you really that damn busy that you can't spend a minute or less writing a more natural and conversational reply that indicates to the other person that you're reciprocating the amount of thought and effort they invested in their message?<p>I agree with some others here in saying that this is awkward. You don't strive for efficiency in social interactions. You stay an extra couple of minutes to let a friend babble on about a story you don't care about because you're socially tactful and tact is the lubricant that preserves our social relationships.

When sending a VSR that might otherwise be rude, I just add "Sent from my iPhone" at the bottom. Don't tell anyone.

Annnnnnd this is why geeks have a reputation for social awkwardness.

This is what I use Jabber for--Jabber messages have an implicit VSRE attached. In practice, it's just like email except that the replies are usually short. For me, Jabber messages get delivered to the same places on both my computer and phone, and take about the same amount of effort to respond to.<p>It has the added benefit of potentially being a real-time conversation as well--this sometimes happens with a flurry of short emails, but it's much more awkward.<p>I was hoping Google Wave would take off an neatly combine the two. But it never did :(.

One thing I've noticed is that people who expect short replies sometimes write very short mails to begin with. I think that might be more effective to set expectations than coming up with a new acronym and having to wait for it to catch on (if ever).<p>If the content you need a short reply to is a bit longer, you can also write a short summary before the longer part. Something like "Below is blah blah blah, wondering if you have any quick comments. Thanks, yournamehere." Then below is your multi-paragraphed whatever.

I like this idea, but I wonder about the phrasing. I wouldn't want my more... loquacious colleagues to misinterpret it as an imperative ("please do not send me a wall of text").

I love this. I'm also extremely fond of EOM (short for End Of Message. An email with a short subject and no body).<p>Often I send EOMs to imply a VSRE. For example, "Grill tonight? Have burgers. Off work @ 6. EOM"<p>Very interested in learning others.

How about VSRA. Very short reply accepted. VSRE can come off a bit harsh both for the sender and receiver. By using VSRA you're saying "hey, if you're real busy I won't be offended by a super short response. As others have mentioned here, the idea of VSRE can be socially awkward. By making it optional you avoid that. I suggest this not as a replacement but as an alternative. You could use VSRE with people you know well and VSRA with anyone else.

I starting answering emails shortly without needing to see VSRE because I'm warm enough on the first email. After that, it is all short answers unless I have a reason to do otherwise.

A fan of the idea - giving people permission is a good solution. The word "expected", however, can carry different connotations. VSRO (very short reply okay) might be friendlier?

I wish email came with a YES/NO embed button. Even a RECEIVED/READ button would be useful. Recipient can hit those buttons and move on... Sender knows the status and can move on.<p>I know you can embed Google Forms, but don't know if they work for all email clients. Anyone use them?

I find "VSRE" unnecessary: if you write efficiently, anyone capable of a VSR will follow suit.

I think you're jumping ahead; it can't be an acronym before people even start using it. Maybe write "Short reply OK" for now.

i usually end an email with a multiple choice question. that way, the receiver could just reply with the answer.<p>did you like my comment?<p>a) yes<p>b) no

Until this thread I honestly thought I was the only person who spends time agonizing over the wording of simple replies.

There's this one person I know well, a chatty extroverted business guy, not a socially awkward engineer, who always has extremely short, curt emails. He comes off in his emails as kind of a dick because of this, and now whenever I meet him in real life I find him annoying (when previously I wasn't annoyed at him).

It's an interesting idea, probably worth exploring.<p>It seems like email is exponentially getting harder to manage all the time. One thing I've noticed is if I send a reply from my phone that has the "Sent from my phone" signature on it, then people are 100% ok with short, blunt replies where they wouldn't be without that signature.

I am since a while omitting dears and wishes and being very terse in my replies. Most people seem to get the message, relax and simply reply to me with similar tone, making the whole exchange much more pleasant and less prone to misinterpretation.<p>Perhaps instead of adding an acronym out of the blue — that very much no-one outside HN will ever bother figuring out — we could train ourselves and our correspondants to understand that there is no need for excessive form under the majority of circumstances. The medium is very flexible, but our attitude is stuck. And maybe the reason for the stuckedness is that email, unlike less pervasive media, is used by people of every age, every degree of computer literacy, every background, etc. There: one more reason why VSRE or any variation is unlikely to make it further than a couple of days from today.

While I understand the spirit of this proposal, I vehemently oppose it.<p>In social interactions you DO NOT tell the recipient how to answer. You are talking to another sentient being, not a computer. VSRE comes across as an imperative, which is simply not work well for healthy communication. It basically tells the recipient (or recipients) reply my way or the highway.<p>It also depends on the question or how it was understood. With VSRE you are working under the assumption that your phraseology and verbiage is flawless and universally understood. Specially in a field such software development with tons of people from a ton of different cultures, VSRE will invariably cause more harm than good.<p>In fact, you could even suggest to your recipient, in a more amicable way to answer briefly.<p>VSRE, in my opinion, is the antithesis of what communication and technology should be about.

VSRE sounds like a good idea, as long as the recipient is on close enough terms to not be offended (or stifled) by "expected". (The witness will please answer with a simple "Yes" or "No".) Maybe VSRPA (Very Short Reply Perfectly Acceptable) would be more appropriate.

I'm going to use it, and I'd love to receive emails tagged as such.<p>So, submitted to the Urban Dictionary!

In China most people never went through the whole e-mail era and practically jumped right into mobile. QQ is the defacto communication channel and Wechat 微信 is quickly replacing QQ as the method of choice today. The point is, e-mail was intended to mimic letter writing, so "short" wasn't the point. Chat messaging and short voice messaging protocols via mobile devices and their clunky keyboards were, so why not adopt a new communication method instead of a new acronym no one knows?

I don't think politeness and length of message really correlate.<p>"Can I marry your daughter?" "Sorry, no" or "Sorry, no, she's already married" isn't less polite inherently than a 30 page screed about how you would rather just give her a shotgun to kill herself instead of torturing her like that, etc.<p>In fact, my shorter replies are usually my most polite. I think there is a point where it gets too short (single word answers, like some of pg's answers on hn, might be below the lower bound).

If you could get some SEO happening for VSRE it would be very much appreciated. Hyperlinking to your post every time I want to use VSRE would be very time consuming.

If it means "very short reply OK" why isn't it VSRO? "Expected" almost sounds too demanding to me...like you'll actually be disappointed if I write a little more.

I'd want to maintain the French aspect, esp if it's an alternative to RSVP....<p>Strictly: Très courte réponse attendue. My preferred: Tout courte réponse attendue.<p>So maybe TCRA instead of VSRA...?

I like VSRE for composition as well as response efficiency.<p>Many email guides recommend short emails. But it can take more time to craft a pithy missive than a longer explanatory FYI note with a question at the end that needs responding to.<p>I'm not suggesting that we don't take care in writing emails, but no one wants to spend all day editing emails to some arbitrary standard of brevity anymore than they do answering them.<p>VSRE. Brilliant convention.

The most viral/popular acronyms are easily pronounceable, I think. Acronyms like lol, rofl, afaik, imho etc. Not that you go around saying them all the time, but you can easily pronounce them in your own head so I think they tend to stick there and flow into your text easily. Maybe something along the lines of "sro" (short reply ok) would be better ...

I guess VSRE is a very appropriate method to skip the social formalities and discomforting feeling it brings along with it. Some people (like me) like to keep it brief and to the point, rather than pulling strings of over-politeness. It doesn't mean we are rude or something, its just that we are comfortable with this way of interaction at work place.

Another initiative along a similar vein that I tried for a while is called 5Sentences: <a href="http://five.sentenc.es/" rel="nofollow">http://five.sentenc.es/</a><p>I have tried to adopt the principle now, without including it in my footers.<p>In the environment that I'm in something like this would be great if everyone could adopt it - very few would in reality.

At work, where everyone uses Outlook, I often just set up a "poll" for this (even for only 1 recipient - it's only a couple of clicks). It does rely on me being able to guess what their answer will be, but for things like "Please confirm you'll meet deadline X", it's fine.<p>Obviously, this doesn't work in non-homogeneous environments.

IMHO "Very Short Reply Expected" makes it sound like an answer longer than ~5 words is not welcome. I think it ought to be more inclusive so that in case there is more to say you still feel welcome to do so. Maybe something like SRW for "Short response welcome"…?

If a sales/business dev guy sent me a unsolicited message promoting their latest ad delivery platform or obscure SAAS solution, with VSRE at the end of his message - I would definitely view his approach in a better light.<p>But, likely my response would still be: "No."

Should there be an RSVW (welcome) as well as an RWVE (expected)? i.e. RSVE I'd interpret as "I don't have time to read long replies" whilst RSVW I'd read as "I'm happy for your response to be brief, but if you prefer verbose knock yourself out".

Add "Sent from my iPhone/Android Phone/etc" as the signature for all of your emails, not just your mobile ones. With it, a short reply is socially acceptable, and you are able to give brief answers.

My circle uses NNTOOR in the subject line, plus the text being communicated (No Need To Open the email Or Respond (everything's in the subject line).<p>It's awesome to zip through 10 NNTOOR emails in one minute!

VSRE is implied in twitter or SMS simply because the length of the message is limited. Maybe we could introduce replies without bodies for emails? RWB? also know for "Royal Winnipeg Ballet"

This is awesome, thanks for the suggestion, I can see myself using this quite often. If I don't need more than a VSR, now I can indicate that to the person.

Very Long HN Thread Expected to discuss VSRE to death.

The only thing I'd change with this is 'E' to 'O' for OK. "Expected" is just a bit too pushy. What if I don't want to reply at all?

Twitter?<p>Seriously though, I'd rather have this built into an email system than relying on people to start understanding and following acronyms.

Under what situation would a short reply not be acceptable?<p>Seems to me that VSRE/VSRO telegraphs what should be known anyway. I don't like it.

Or you could finish with "A simple yes or no is fine" and prevent the recipient from having to googling an acronym.

How about a friendly footer: “Short, one or two word replies are not only ok, they are much appreciated!”

And in reply MVCE (Many Verbose Comments Expected).

I sometimes end emails/IM questions with "Yes/No?"

I'm a fan! I'll be using this.

I just VSRE anyways.

Ok.

Do you still beat your wife? -VSRE

ok

good idea

In the early days of the telephone, there was some debate about the proper way to start and terminate a discussion.<p>Many were fond of starting a discussion with 'ahoy', ending with 'that is all'. Alas, 'hello' and 'goodbye' won the competition.<p>That is all.

nnnnnnope

No.

not trying to be rude or to troll the author, but how does a post about a personal acronym make it to the front page? HN's little mysteries :)<p>now just waiting for those downvotes...