A guy named Vince spurred a 'reply all' disaster at Reuters

By Jenn Gidman, Jenn Gidman

Published November 04, 2015

Illustration file picture. (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files)

Ever done something you wished you could take back? Like accidentally sent an email to 33,000 Thomson Reuters employees? That's what some guy named Vince apparently did Wednesday, flooding inboxes and setting off a "reply all" chain that some say slowed down Reuters email and provided the Internet with Twitter gold, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Some tweets using the #ReutersReplyAllGate hashtag expressed frustration at the hundreds of reply-all emails asking people to stop replying to all, while others used the chaos to grab their 15 minutes of fame (being listed in the "to" field) and laugh at the inherent inanity of it all.

"Should I just start live tweeting every single reply?" one recipient wondered, while another called for extraordinary assistance, imploring, "Any Super Hero currently in the U.S. Your help is needed to stop this email chain." But as the debacle continues to generate fresh reply-all emails this morning, what's happened to poor Vince? One Reuters worker remains concerned, tweeting, "Where is Vince? Hope he's ok! #ReutersReplyAllGate #prayforvince." (Gmail users need not make Vince's mistake.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: Guy Named Vince Creates 'Reply All' Chaos at Reuters