[Apollo81]

Person A forwards an email to person B, with the text "FYI" and then the body of the forwarded email. The forward was sent only to person B. Are there any negative connotations associated with this?

[pclayton]

Depends on the nature of the email, but fyi by itself is a neutral comment.

[hotShot]

I would expect "For Your Information" to mean just that.

[mycroft]

The only negative inference I would take from that is that the original sender didn't send it to person B; he may not have wanted it to go to person B.

Usually FYIs are "heads up, you may hit this sometime soon", as opposed to gossip; but it is pretty much the same.

Michael.

[jonottawa]

If the body of the forwarded email was:

"F*** You, Idiot." then FYI might have negative connotations.

Other than that, of course FYI is neutral. The relevant question is whether the forwarded email would be of sufficient interest to the 2nd party to warrant forwarding it. Forwarding stupid emails is generally in poor taste, akin to spam. If person B objected, surely it was to that, and not to the three letters.

[hotShot]

How do you know it was only send to Person B?

Person B can't see any address given in the BCC field and Person A could have forwarded the mail as often as he liked.

[Gerben42]

We have a lot of these where I work, you get FYI's in different languages.

[jdonn]

In general no, but there are situations where a negative intent could be clear.

[han]

No.

[kenrexford]

"Any" negative connotations?

Well, you would have to stretch if using the little bit of info provided.

C sends an email to A. A forwards that email to B, for B's information. How can this be bad?

If B is the only person who would also benefit from the information contained in the email from C to A, then this is somewhat specific information, it seems. It would seem that C should know that B also would be interested in the info, but C sent it only to A. So, B might possibly have been slighted by C.

Or, perhaps the info would be useful to many people. However, A only knows B. So, it might be "negative" in the sense that A is a loser.

There's probably other conspiracy theories here. I've learned a lot in talking with the women in my house as to conspiracy theories and slighting people. LOL

[han]

I often forward bridge emails to people who might be interested.

[pclayton]

Hannie, on Nov 1 2007, 12:15 PM, said:

I often forward bridge emails to people who might be interested.

Yes, but I forward them back to Arend with a "FYI".

[P_Marlowe]

No.

But construct a specific case,
and the answer is yes.
You will know it, when you see it.

With kind regards
Marlowe

[kfay]

I received this exact email today. It concerned Han so that may make it a negative in and of itself but otherwise I would say a definitely 'no'.

[helene_t]

I'm surprised that everybody thinks fyi is neutral. To me it implies that A does not ask B to take any specific action which might otherwise be suggested by the body text. For example if the body text encouraged the receiver of the message to sign a petition, "fyi" suggests that the mail was forwarded to inform B about the campaign, not necessarily to encourage B to sign.

Also it could be that the body was a joke, or some well-known fact, or some obvious urban legend. In that case, "fyi" could be a carcasm.

[gwnn]

I wouldn't mind the FYI, but I know people who are touchy and would think FYI is rudely cold, and would require something like

"Hi B!

How are you? (........)

Look at what I got from C, I thought you might find it interesting!
(...)