To RE: or not to RE: does it really make a difference?

I found an interesting rant on a ZD.Net blog.

Quote:

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Though this practice isn’t anything new, I’ve noticed an increasing number of Internet marketers prefixing their email subjects with “Re:”.

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Quote:

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Right, so here’s the deal with that whole “Re:” thing: it implies your message is either dishonest or not worth reading in the first place.

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I have actually found myself falling into that trap sending emails to work... :D even my boss does it. I don't work with email marketing, so I thought I would put this out there for you guys and see what your reaction is.

Is it an automatic thing when you send an email? Does it help you with conversions? Or does the "RE:" thing annoy you as well?

Read the rest of the story here: ZD.NET and let me know what you think. :)

For me it is not annoying, it is kinda natural to me...,
but I don't like whn I got only "RE:" SPAM into my inbox.

If I see RE: in a subject line and have not initiated a contact I immediately expect the email to be spam, and am seldom disappointed. Much of it goes directly to spamcop.net (spam reporting and blacklisting service) without even opening. Spamcop has been around for a long time and is respected, so they are able to get many spam sources shut down. Even with exposed email addresses I see less spam problems than many indicate when talking about the spam problem. I give most of the credit for this to Spamcop.

I use it as a way to see what it is I am reading. I mean, not all my emails are from forum subscriptions, so it kinda helps me sort through the important from the not so important. I never really gave it much thought until I saw that blog. It gets annoying when I see it in my junkmail but not so much when its part of my work or emails from friends. lol

Personally it annoys me when it really isn't a response to one of my emails. If someone sends me an email with RE: in the subject line and I don't know them I just delete it right away

I do that as well. I can see that many think it would be an easier way to get people to open emails sent to them, but I learnt the hard way that doing that can cause more harm than good.