Bless your little soul if you’re on the Harvard mailing list titled “IR-Announce” which is the “International Relations Announcements List.”  This Voice reporter has no idea why or how she got on this list (probably signed up for it as a naive freshman once upon a prefrosh yesteryear), but wow. Talk about unnecessary drama clogging up your already clogged up inbox. Words like “imbeciles” and “mind numbingly stupid” and “blackberrying selves” were whacked about the list earlier today as several students hit the “reply-all” button with a simple request: TAKE ME OFF THIS DAMN LIST.

The thread is currently 15 messages long, and counting. Below are some choice gems.

“Seriously stop replying all to this list in order to be removed. Just click onhttps://lists.hcs.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/ir-announce and put in your email address and press the unsubscribe button. The other 1000 people on this list don’t need to be involved.”

“If I weren’t sick and in such a crappy mood, I would love the examples of nudge effects / destabilization at work here. Unsubscribe your own blackberrying selves. Sent from my laptop.”

The announce list is apparently open for anyone to email, even if you are not a moderator. Was this a stupid decision, or are students just too stupid to use the list responsibly?

Oh well. Just another Manic Monday.

Blocking is like swimming. For some, it happens easily and naturally–a few strokes and you’re afloat. For others, not so much. Arms flail, water is gulped…and then you drown and are MISERABLE AND DIE.

To avoid the latter situation, we’ve constructed for  you a brief guide to blocking.

1. Do not block with your significant other or would-be significant other. This is probably the one rule you should always abide by. DO NOT BREAK IT, seriously. Blocking with someone you may have feelings for could make things awkward later. You might be omg-so-in-love right now, but what happens after a bitter breakup? Transferring to another house is a pain in the rear, so avoid blockcest at all costs!

2. Do not block with The Drama Queen. Because drama will, undoubtedly, ensue. Um, especially if you’re a girl.

3. Brace yourself for eleventh-hour blocking drama. People will pull out or leave you blocking-groupless at the last minute, so be mentally prepared. It might be a good idea even to have backup plans–get ready to beg and plead to be let in on your second choice blocking group.

4. You’ll find that linking doesn’t really matter. Yeah, you’ll be in adjacent houses but the reality of seeing your linkmates all the time like you’re still biffles is unlikely. Sorry.

5. Enjoy River Run the night before Housing Day. It’ll help soothe the pain once you’re Quadded the next morning. (Or you’ll be too hangover or still drunk to soak in the reality of what just happened.) To ensure this doesn’t happen, construct the most badass sacrificial boat for the River Gods…sans firecrackers, unless you want the Cambridge Police and Fire Departments on your asses (CLASS OF 2012 FTW!).

Who knew an email could be this exciting and dramatic?

We at Noice are unabashed gossips, in the best sense of the word. We like checkin’ Harvard out, talking about who’s doing what, where, and to whom.  So when this vitriolic thread went over Quincy open list earlier today — with indignation nearly bursting out of its cyberseams — the drama could not escape our attention.

So what set off the little tiff? (Okay, not so little, it’s actually pretty long.) Just the Peer Health Exchange spamming Quincy House, as well as every other list, about its “FREE Pancake Breakfast” this morning.

Sounds innocuous, right? I mean, who actually reads stuff that gets pubbed on House lists? But, my oh my, the responses that ensued…

Read the rest of this entry »