Observing Boundaries Between The Lines

[plumtreeblossom]

I'm sitting here thinking about when a reply in e-mail or voicemail is concluded with "Hope this helps."

What it usually really means is "This is absolutely all I'm going to do for you on this matter, do not ask anything additional of me regarding it, do not even CC me on your continued search for a solution because I have no further assistance to offer you."

EXAMPLE:

Q: "Hey, would you have a list of every Indian restaurant in the city, with addresses, phone numbers, and websites? I'm planning a tasting tour for some friends. I think there are like 40."

A: "I have the websites for 3, attached in a spreadsheet. Hope this helps."

Comments

[noire.livejournal.com]

????
It never even occurred to me that "hope this helps" would mean "and don't expect anything else from me."

I use (and generally read) "hope this helps" to mean:
1) I am not entirely clear on the information you want--this is what I *think* you mean.
2) I am not an expert in the area so I'm not sure if my cursory answer is useful or has enough depth.
3) You appear to have lots of good information already, so I'm not sure that what I have to add really does improve the quality of what you've already gathered, but I sure hope so!

Maybe I'm naive?

[chienne-folle.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'm naive?

Nope. It looks like most of the people on this thread use it more or less as you do, in a non-snarky way.