etiquette question, sorta...

[lph]

A friend is on holiday, and sends you a MMS by mistake, meant for someone else, with a picture from the beach and a few lines of innocent text ("bla-bla, weather's nice, say hi to everyone"). Next second you get a second message confirming that it was a mistake. Would you:

a) just ignore the whole thing. Who cares anyway.
b) use the opportunity to poke mild fun at friend. After all everybody makes that mistake once in a while.
c) lord, no, I'd NEVER poke fun at someone for something like that, it's embarrassing enough in the first place

I ask because I did b), ("Thanks for the photo - I see it's nice at the beach, catch some sun") and the friend in question went ballistic.

I was obviously expected to do c)... I just don't see what the fuss is about and am feeling mildly autistic here. Curious as to what you people say.

[Pedal Wench]

What kind of friend would go ballistic over something like that???

Another messaging etiquette question: I got a nice Thanksgiving message from a number I didn't recognize. I ignored it. Got another really nice message from the same number for the holidays. It's from Baltimore. I don't know if I know anyone from Baltimore! Do I ask who it's from?

[sfa]

It's too bad people can't buy a sense of humor because some people obviously need a new one!

I could understand getting upset if the message the friend sent was itself embarrassing or compromising in some way (topless photo, complaining about a friend of yours, etc.). In that case I'd ignore it.

In your case, though, I'd have done the same thing you did. And if I had been the friend and had gotten your message, I would have poked fun back at you (along the lines of "sucks being you! I'm enjoying the sun and you're stuck in winter hell!").

About getting messages from numbers you don't know--I always ignore them, but I guess if it keeps happening I might message back with "do I know you? I think you have the wrong number."

Sarah

[OakLeaf]

lph - yeah, you didn't do anything wrong, something's apparently going on with your friend that you don't know about.

PedalWench - when it's on the holidays, it must be family, and if you don't recognize the number it's obviously not your family. Just hit reply and tell them they have a wrong number. I do that whenever I get a wrong-number message that's obviously important (medical or family) - otherwise I ignore them.

[redrhodie]

A friend of mine recently called me 3 times in a row while I was working, so I didn't answer. After the 3rd call, I got worried that something was wrong, so I called her back. She said something to me that made no sense, about being almost at the restaurant (we were not meeting). It took a minute to realize she thought she was talking to her other friend with my first name.

I teased her the next time we talked. Not only do I think it's acceptable, but required to tease your friends. If they don't take it well, tease more. Eventually, they'll either get it, or they'll stop being your friend (good riddance).

[cobalt]

Maybe something was going on at that beach! hmmmm.... that would explain the anger.

You are fine.