The ultimate reply-to-all email chain recently plagued and/or amused the students of New York University.

Being called by NYU Local “replyallcalypse 2012,” the close to 40,000-person student body at NYU discovered a mistake that allowed them to email everyone. One can only imagine the resulting inbox chaos.

It started harmless enough though. NYU Local reported sophomore Max Wiseltier was only trying to email his mother about a university email regarding paperless tax forms. In the process, he accidentally hit reply to all and emailed the entire university.

This is a screenshot showing Wiseltier’s original reply-to-all and hasty apology that started a reply-all frenzy at NYU. (Image via NYU Local)

At this point, NYU Local called it a “University-wide revelation.”

“We simultaneously realized that any message, complaint, whim, link, video, or GIF could be sent to nearly 40,000 people in an instant,” Kelly Weill wrote for the publication. “We had been given a great and terrible power.”

Cats images peppered email accounts. A picture of Nicolas Cage cropped up. And the “Will Everyone Please Just Shut Up” messages were sent around once the novelty wore off. Perhaps the most interesting email sent read as follows, according to NYU Local:

“Would you rather fight 100 duck sized horses, or 1 horse sized duck?”

NYU Local’s tech editor Ben Zweig explained how this issue occurred:

“NYU uses something called E-Mail Direct for most mass emails. That system is meant for one-way emailing.” E-Mail Direct does not allow for reply-alls, therefore you cannot respond to most mass emails. Several NYU departments still rely on the older, discussion-based ListManager program, however. ListManager also sends mass emails, but allows discussions (in the form of reply-alls), unless the settings are adjusted, disabling group discussions and only permitting emails from admins.”

As annyoying as all the reply-to-all emails might have been, Wiseltier said that it seems to have “rekindled sense of community at NYU (even if it’s based on being stupid).”

In an update to its post, NYU Local reported that the problem had been identified and fixed.

Featured image via Shutterstock.com. 

(H/T: GeekOSystem)